Glass 




1. Eugenia Uf/ni. 

2. Phi/salis Peruviana — Tho »»alal)lo W iiii«'r ('lu^rry 



THE 



OECHAKD 



FRUIT GARDEN: 



ELIZABETH "^^ATTS, 

AUTHOR OE " FLOWEKS AKD THE FLOWER OARDEK," 
" TEGETABLES, AKD HOW TO GROW IHEJI." 




LONDON: 
FREDERICK WARNE & CO., 

BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 



1867. 



LONDON : 

FEINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, 
MILFORD L.\NE, STRAND, W.C. 

fty trail Bi'c;.r ii '^ 



PREFACE. 



We have so many excellent large and expensive works 
-qn fruit culture, that I should never have thought of 
; writing this one, if its peculiar place had not stood 
vacant, waiting to be filled. It is the first cheap icorh 
on the Orchard and Fruit Garden. Those who, like 
myself, have had through life some space of land, 
between a pole and an acre, at command, do not need 
to be puzzled with lists of hundreds in the selection of 
the trees they want ; their need is one which I have 
made it my endeavour to supply, i.e, particulars of a 
feio good sorts of fruit trees of all kinds which any 
careful cultivator can manage, and which may be ob- 
tained at any good nursery. The sorts named are good, 
those I most recommend I have tested, and the di- 
rections given respecting their cultivation will be found 
plain, concise, and practical. I can only hope my little 
book will be found useful to all who delight in fruit 
culture, but who cannot command access to voluminous 
and expensive works upon the subject. 



Jersey^ May, 1867. 



E. WATTS. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

I. The Orchard "l 

II. Choosing and Planting ...... 5 

III. Propagation and Improve nient . . . . .10 

lY. Grafting and Budding ...... 15 

Y. Culture of Fruit trees. — Pruning .... 25 

YI. Training 30 

YII. Protection 37 

YIII. Diseases and Insects 42 

IX. Tools and Storing-rooms ...... 55 

X. The Pear Tree and its Produce . . . . 60 

XI. Summer and Autumn Pears ..... 65 

XII. Keeping Pears .72 

XIIL Pears of the Last Century 79 

XIY. Quinces and Baking Pears 82 

XY. Apples 86 

XYI. Keeping Apples 97 

XYII. Almonds 105 

5YIII. Apricots 106 

XIX. Peaches Ill 

XX. Yarieties of Peaches ...... 116 

XXI. Yarieties of Nectarines 122 

XXII. Plums, good kinds 126 

XXIII. Cherries 136 

XXIY. Useful kinds 139 

XX Y. Grooseberries and Currants . . . . .145 

XXYI. A few good Grooseberries ...... 150 

XXYII. Yarieties of Currants 154 

XXYIII. Raspberries . 156 

XXIX. Strawbenies 160 

XXX. IMulberries, Medlars, and Nuts .... 165 

XXXI. Figs 171 

XXXII. Yines for out of doors ...... 174 

XXXIII. Melons .181 

XXXI Y. The Plate . 184 



THE 



ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 



CHAPTEE I. 

THEOECHAED. 

IiT the treatment of our fruit trees, sins of omission are 
more general than sins of commission. AVhereas many, 
in the present advanced state of Horticulture, select 
with precision, plant with care, prune with skill, manure 
sufficiently, and accommodate the soil to the develop- 
ment and improvement of the fruit, there are yet also 
many others who seem to think a tree a tree, and one 
about as good as another, make a hole in which to bury 
the root, together with all reasonable hope of success, 
and leave the rest to nature and to chance. This negli- 
gent gardening, although still too prevalent, is much 
less so than formerly. Excellent treatises and well- 
conducted periodicals now aid the beginner with advice 
and instruction, and offer a theatre for the discussion of 
all moot points. These valuable works are, however, not 
so universally within the reach of all fruit growers and 
lovers of a garden as to render a cheap work on the 
management of fruit trees superfluous. 

Emit fresh gathered and good in kind, is so pleasant 
and so useful an addition to diet, and so especially 
valuable in the case of children and young people, that 
I can scarcely comprehend why there are so many 
gardens, even of the smallest dimensions, entirely 

B 



2 



THE OECHAED AKD FKUIT GAEDEN. 



without fruit trees, and why ground, where they would 
grow, thrive, and produce, is often devoted to trees 
which are not more ornamental than they, and which 
entirely lack their utility. I scarcely like to see even 
an ornamental flowering shrub or tree occupying a fine 
wall which might be utilized in the production of good 
stone fruit or pears, with very little loss on the score of 
decoration ; but this is merely a matter of fancy. 

" Be aye sticking in a tree," was the Scottish Laird's 
instruction to his heir, " it will be growing, Jock, when 
ye're sleeping," and " be aye putting in a fruit tree," I 
echo, after trying the plan with five different residences, 
situated in various localities, soils, and climates, occupied 
and tested during the last quarter of a century . 

An outcry against a man for selfishness^ because he 
shows an unwillingness to plant trees in ground not his 
own, is hardly fair, since few wish to practise unsolicited 
bestowal of property on unknown recipients ; but as a 
matter affecting personal remuneration, it is not neces- 
sary or prudent to avoid planting because we may have 
no permanent or lengthened hold on the land we 
occupy. If our tenure expire soon or unexpectedly, we 
tave, I believe, the right by law to remove trees within 
three years of the time of planting them, and when they 
Tiave been planted more than that time, those which 
have been chosen, planted, and managed with judgment, 
will already have made a fair return on outlay and work. 
A well-managed tree will within a very few years of the 
time of planting prove a capital investment, and one the 
interest^ of which will continually increase for many 
jears; I therefore very strongly recommend all who 
own or rent a bit of ground, to plant trees; if the tenure 
be given up soon, the trees can be removed, and the 
removal will do them no harm ; and if they are held for 
from three to a dozen years, they will in that time make 
a much better return than any other crop which can be 
grown. 

If the tenure be short or uncertain, fruits which will 
make an early return may be planted, — such as apples, 
gooseberries, currants, raspberries, strawberries, and 



THE OECHAED. 



3 



perhaps some well-chosen stone fruit trees. If the 
tenure be pretty secure, and of unlimited duration, then 
plant without reservation pears, and all other choice 
fruits, only taking care to plant so far apart as to leave 
ample space for the increase of every tree that is 
planted. 

The best situation for an orchard or fruit garden is a 
gentle slope towards the South, South-east, or East. A 
North aspect should be avoided, and a "West aspect is 
too much open to tearing winds, and too burning in the 
afternoon heat to be beneficial. A low, damp situation 
should be avoided, as no tree will do well and produce 
fine fruit if its roots are occasionally in water. At the 
same time a low, sheltered spot, if dry, is better than 
exposed high land, being less open to cold, and violent 
wind. 

"With regard to soil, good corn land is said to do well 
for fruit ; good loam is best. The soil should be neither 
too light and dry, nor too heavy and stubborn ; if its 
nature require such treatment, it should be trenched 
and drained, and its surface should have a sufficient 
thickness of fine, fertile earth. 

An orchard may be stocked with apples, pears, cherries, 
or plums. In the fruit garden we may have these and 
all other fruits ; the vinery, orchard house and frame will 
give choice fruit earlier than it can be produced out of 
doors, and every good waU should be made available for 
apricots, peaches, and nectarines, and the choicest kinds 
of pears, plums, and cherries. 

If grass land be used as an orchard, it must not be 
imagined that all may be taken from the land and 
nothing restored to it. The earth pays double dues in 
fruit and grass, and therefore it cannot be expected to 
do its duty and produce fine crops and fine fruit too, 
unless it be doubly manured : manured on the score of 
the fruit trees, and again on that of the green or other 
crop which is taken off it. 

The same may be said of fruit gardens which are also 
used to grow vegetables. If the vegetables are dug and 
^ removed without mercy on the fruit trees, their roots 

B 2 



4 



THE OECHAED AKD EEriT GAEDEN. 



will be injured and impoverished, and their fruit spoiled. 
The digging must be managed with reference to the 
roots of the trees, and no crop must be put in so close 
to a tree as to interfere with it either while it grows or 
in its removal. The manure, too, must not be given to 
the vegetables without regard to the prosperity of the 
trees ; it must on no account be given close round the 
roots at a season when forcing them would encourage 
rampant growth to the detriment of a fine crop of fruit, 
nor withheld from them when mulching is requisite or 
beneficial. 

Pruit and vegetables, or fruit and orchard crops, may 
do well in concert if all are fairly treated, and fairly 
enriched, but for the production of choice fruit it should 
be made the specialite in either the orchard or the 
garden. 

For fencing, there is nothing that may be compared 
with fine, smooth, high walls, as available for the train- 
ing of the best kinds of fruit, and a safeguard against 
the depredations of thieves, Next to these in merit, 
though far inferior, stand well-made, close wooden fences, 
and these are about the only methods of enclosure to be 
used with advantage for orchards or fruit gardens. 

A wall should be at least eight feet high, and as much 
higher as can be made convenient. If not more than 
eight feet, it may be nine inches in thickness. Prom 
eight to fourteen feet high requires thirteen inches and 
a half in thickness, and above that height eighteen 
inches. A wall, if high and many feet in length, must be 
strengthened with buttresses, and the foundation of all 
walls should be a brick and a half thick, even where the 
wall itself is only one brick thick. 

riued or hot walls are built hollow, the interstices 
being used as flues for the circulation of artificial heat. 
It is necessary for these walls to have hooks along, near 
the top, under the coping, or other apparatus for arrang- 
ing protection over the trees when necessary. 

A wall like this will require a fire to every forty or 
fifty feet of wall. Stone walls are good, but they almost 
require a lattice over them to which to train trees. 



CHOOSINa AND PLANTIlSra. 



5 



All the walls of a fruit garden may be made valuable, 
even that with the North aspect being needed for shelter, 
and available for Morello cherries, and some other 
fruits. 

A well-formed, well-kept bank, with a hedge at the 
top regularly pruned and thickened, is a good fence to 
an orchard in the country, especially if the locality be 
cheap in labour, and dear in bricks and other building 
commodities. 

For hedges to a fruit garden, evergreens only can be 
tolerated, and they are so inferior in utility to walls of 
any kind that they should never be used unless as a 
positive matter of necessity. 

A nursery for rearing and testing young trees is a 
valuable adjunct to every establishment where fruit is 
much thought of: there we can bring forward young 
trees for future use, increase the choice sorts, try the 
merits of all which are unknown, and provide stocks for 
any valuable varieties that may be met with. 



CHAPTEE II. 

CHOOSING- AND PLAKTIKa. 

Five out of every six persons who become possessed of 
a garden find it already planted to their hands. What 
they have to do is to wait and watch in the first instance, 
lest the indiscriminate rooting up of untried trees effect 
a work of destruction instead of improvement. Even 
old and apparently worn-out trees had better be spared 
for a year, and encouraged into bearing, that the owner, 
if cutting them up be thought best, may know what he 
destroys. 

Careful cleansing, liberal pruning, judicious manuring, 
and scientific general treatment, have rendered many 
trees which were queer old things to look at, productive 
and valuable ; and, on the other hand, numbers are ruth- 
lessly destroyed without need, and gardens thrown back 
years in productiveness by the process. 



6 



THE OECHAED AlsD FETJIT GAEDEN. 



"Where there is space for the introduction of new trees, 

the choice must be made with care, and with reference 
not only to the selection of the trees, but to the appli- 
cability of the kind to the locality, and the position 
intended for them. By a little inspection of gardens 
near, information may generally be obtained as to fruits 
that are quite unlikely to thrive, and as to the kinds 
most Kkely to do well. Any person may decide without 
much reflection that it can only lead to disappointment 
to plant trees of a delicate kind in a sharp, bleak, or cold 
damp situation, or to put those which are easily injured 
by smoke in the immediate neighbourhood of London or 
any other large town. 

Apples will do in most garden soils and in most 
localities, provided the ground be tolerably well drained, 
and gooseberries and currants may prosper where trees 
of larger growth fail to produce. "Wall fruit, pears, 
plums, and cherries, require warm sheltered spots, or the 
nipping frosts of spring will destroy their crops year 
after year. 

Toung trees, recently grafted, are generally purchased, 
but if they are of three or four years' standing, and are 
transplanted with care, the additional outlay will be re- 
paid by their earlier productiveness. Choose young 
trees of a free, vigorous growth, avoiding those with a 
weakly, run appearance, and a thick growth of thin 
sprays. 

For the kind, in purchasing young trees, we must 
depend in a great degree on the honesty and precision 
of the man we buy of. It is a good plan to make the 
selection early enough in the autumn to see the fruit 
on the trees, and then to mark each one which is chosen 
with a plain and unmistakable tally, carried for the pur- 
pose by the buyer, and afiSxed firmly and immovably by 
him. With this care no mistake can well interfere with 
the delivery of the right trees at the right season. A 
label with the name of the buyer cut on it is about 
the best and most unmistakable mark to use for this 
purpose. 

Even while quite young, the trees should have an equal, 



7 



regular, well-balanced growth ; for those which are irre- 
gular, one-sided, or cluttered in the branches will never, 
without care, time, and trouble, develop into trees of 
elegant form. In young wall or espalier trees, take 
especial care that the sprays are even and regular. 

A thoroughly healthy appearance in the trees, in bark 
and foliage, must also be carefully looked to. Xever 
choose any with moss-grown, foul, unhealthy-looking 
bark, or with American blight, canker, or any other 
destructive growth, insect, or disease, but notice that the 
bark is delicate in texture, smooth (according to kind) 
and clean. 

Canker is an evil which has annually destroyed num- 
bers of our finest fruit trees, especially pears. It comes 
from old age, but in young trees it often proceeds from 
bruises or other ill usage. Trees planted in an uncon- 
genial soil, and those that are pruned in a bad, slovenly 
manner, are very subject to the disease. It begins with 
a swelling of the bark and wood in some one particular 
spot. In a certain number of years, few or many, ac- 
cording to the favourable or unfavourable circumstances 
under which the tree exists, the alburnum (or layers of 
young wood next to the bark, in which are placed the 
vessels for the circulation of the sap) perishes, and the 
bark on the spot cracks, rises in discoloured scales, and 
decays rapidly, circulation is interrupted, and all the 
portion of the tree above the canker dies. Take care 
never to buy trees with an appearance of this disease, 
nor to induce it by careless bruising and wounding, by 
allowing branches to cross and chafe each other, by 
planting in an ungenial soil, nor by humouring an over- 
rampart growth. 

The American blight is a very destructive aphis which 
attacks apple trees especially, but other trees also at 
times. It may be detected in a moment by the appear- 
ance of a perfectly white cottony matter in the cracks 
and inequalities of the bark, which form its home. 
This cottony substance flies on the wind from tree to 
tree, and so spreads the evil ; and the insect, like other 
aphides, is said to have wings at its season. 



8 



THE OECHAED AND FKUIT GAEDEK. 



When the trees are bought, the next thing is to plant 
hem. Dig and trench the earth, where a tree is to be 
planted, or a plantation made, three feet deep ; if the 
subsoil be too wet, the ground should be drained, and if 
it be poor, remove it and replace it with good, mode- 
rately rich loam. 

October is the best time for planting, but any period 
between that and the first breath of spring, i.e., while 
the trees are near or in their winter rest, will do. Any 
"week in IsTovember, December, or January, provided the 
weather be so open as to present no danger of sharp 
frost, is good, but the lest time is before the growth 
of the tree has entirely ceased for the season, because 
the impulse of growth, to replace the spongelets of the 
roots which are injured, is beneficial to its restoration, 
after the trial of transplanting. 

Take care that the tree is not planted with the earth 
loosely thrown in, or, as the mould sinks, and the root 
with it, the tree will be too deep in the earth. J^either 
let the mould be stamped in too hard, to bruise the roots 
and prevent the ingress of air and water. 

Make the hole for a young tree of medium size, four 
feet across each way, renew the subsoil, if necessary or 
advisable, and have ready good earth, properly enriched, 
with which to fill up. Before placing the tree, stamp 
the bottom of the hole flat and firna, to discourage the 
roots from running down too deep. If, the tree has 
previously been well planted, or well rooted, disturb it 
as little as possible, but remove it with as large a ball 
of earth as can be, undisturbed round the root. If, on 
the other hand, it has been badly planted, is rem.oved 
from a bad soil, or needs root-pruning, on account of too 
rampant growth, or canker on the root, shake off* the 
earth, fill in the hole just so that the lowest of the roots 
can be spread abroad in their natural position and eleva- 
tion, placing the collar of the tree above the natural 
surface of the ground. Eill in the earth over the first 
layer of roots, spread another layer and fill in, and con- 
tinue the same until all the roots are spread in their 
right position and right elevation. Throw in the earth 



I 



CHOOSING AND PLANTINa. 



9 



in the direction of the roots, not from the outside to- 
wards the bole, so as to turn back some of the tender 
rootlets from their right direction. As soon as the roots 
are covered, water plentifully with a rose on the water- 
ing-pot, and then finish filling in the earth. If a tree 
be large and branching, the branches must be compactly 
tied up before its removal, and a good stake must be 
firmly placed before the roots are covered, lest in driving 
it in, some of them get iDjured. A little cavity may be 
left round the bole to retain the water afterwards given. 

In transplanting, the circumstances especially de- 
manding care are to save injury to the delicate organs 
of the roots, and to prevent injurious evaporation. A 
little injudicious violence to the tender rootlets will do 
great mischief to a tree or plant; and to prevent 
evaporation, time should be chosen when neither earth 
nor air are excessively dry. 

"Where the soil, especially the subsoil, is not favour- 
able for the kind of tree to be planted, what gardeners 
term planting on stations, i.e., planting on a paved 
foundation, is found advantageous. "Where the land 
is of a nature to require more eflScient draining than 
the cultivator may wish to bestow on it, trees may 
prosper with this kind of planting which would other- 
wise fail. In a moist soil, inefficiently drained, the 
trees may be planted in a shallow hole, and the earth 
may be raised round them above the natural level of 
the ground ; but if the locality be dry, they may be 
planted with the collar well above the ground line. 
Dig a hole six feet square : two feet deep will be 
enough for trees which are to be kept to a dwarf habit 
of growth, but four or five inches more must be 
removed to make room for the paving material (if I 
may call it so) to be introduced. In digging the hole, 
throw all the good rich earth together to use again, and 
remove entirely all the clayey, sour subsoil, to be 
replaced with ^ good, appropriate, rich mould in the 
planting. Beat the bottom of the hole flat, and fill 
in with four or five inches thickness of refuse stone 
from a quarry, brickbats, chalk, or clinkers : some persons 



10 THE OECHAED AOT FEIIIT GAEDE^T. 

recommend paving-stones for the purpose. Earn down 
the surface hard, and spread over it a covering of 
riddled cinders, or gravel, and this paving will pretty 
effectually keep the roots of the trees from straying 
into the bad soil below. To make up for bad soH 
removed, add to the best of the earth dug out whatever 
the ground most requires, and let it be of the kind 
fitted to the trees. A naturally dry, sandy soil will be 
improved by a mixture of clayey loam, and a clay soil 
will require sandy loam, or road-sweepings ; and the 
parings of commons and the sides of roads and lanes 
will improve it. 

In planting, take especial care to keep the collar of 
the tree well above the surface of the ground. 

The manure given to enrich the spot should be of the 
most lasting kind. Nothing is better for the purpose 
than turf ; and as its decaying vegetation is its manuring 
principle, it may be taken from poor land : dry refuse 
vegetable matter, such as bean and pea haulm, old 
thatch or straw, will do, and if animal manure be used, 
let it be fresh from the stable or cow-house ; but in- 
troduce these fertilizers at some distance from the root, 
using a single barrowful of mellow, rather rich soil, to 
add to the earth in which to plant the tree. 



CHAPTEE III. 

METHODS OE PEOPAGATION" AOT) IMPEOYEMENT 
OE KliTDS. 

The mode of propagating fruit trees more practised than 
any other is grafting or budding good kinds on young 
stocks. 

The stocks, or young ungrafted wild trees, are trees 
which have sprung from seed, suckers springing from 
the roots of old trees, layers or cuttings. The last two 
are more difficult to obtain, but if taken from a tree 
above the graft, their fruit will be of the cultivated 



PEOPAaATIOlT JlKD IMPEOYEMEOT. ]1 



kind. It is only when the layer or cutting is laid or 
taken below the graft, that it will be a stock requiring 
working or grafting. 

The grafts do not entirely overbear the nature of the 
stock, so that a graft of a kind characterized by fine 
foliage and vigorous growth, should be used on a stock 
of similar nature, and vice versa. A slight difference, 
however, is beneficial in increasing fertility. If stock 
and graft be too unlike in vigour of growth, temporary 
success may result, but not the production of good 
lasting trees. The stock, too, as a general rule, should 
be of rather earlier vegetation than the scion. The size 
at which the young stocks may be grafted or budded is 
the time the stem measures from a quarter of an inch to 
one inch in diameter, but stems or branches two or three 
inches or more in diameter are sometimes worked with 
success. 

Mature trees, that produce inferior fruit, do very 
well for pruning quite close and grafting again, pro- 
vided they are in health and vigour of growth, but old, 
unhealthy, worn-out trees are not worth doing : it is 
better to root up such and plant young trees in their 
place. 

Crah stocks are wild fruit trees, their seedlings or 
suckers, such as the wild crab apple of our hedges, 
wild pears, wild plums, wild cherries, or in fact the 
produce of any trees which have not been grafted. 
They throw their roots deep into the earth, and produce 
trees which are fitter for orchard than for garden 
culture. 

Free stocks are produced from seed or layers of 
cultivated fruit. They partake in some measure of the 
character of the parent tree, and if the natural fruit be 
waited for it may prove new or good, but it is generally 
many years before it comes. 

Paradise, or Doucin stocks are layers or suckers from 
a dwarf kind of apple, wliich keeps the roots much, 
nearer the surface than C7'ah stocks, and which is con- 
sequently much easier to cultivate, manure, and keep 
in lasting vigour. The French Faradise stock is dis- 



12 THE ORCHARD AKD FRUIT GARDEN". 



tinguished by very dwarf growth, clear brown slioots, 
and fibrous roots spreading near the surface of the 
ground. The so-called English Paradise is said to be 
intermediate in habit between the very dwarf habit of 
the French, and the rampant growth of the crab. 
French cultivators make a distinction between the 
Doucin and JPomme de I^aradis, naming the Doucin 
stocks as good for pyramidal pruned trees, and the 
Pomme de Paradis for dwarf trees. 

Quince stocks, or young trees grown from the Quince, 
are excellent for pears in producing the compact, 
dwarfed habit of growth so favourable for keeping that 
delicious fruit in perfect garden cultivation, and safe 
from the late frost and tearing wind which so often, 
between them, bring our pear crops to nil. 

The Malialeh stocky cerasus Ifahalei, or perfumed 
cherry, is a stock which is good for dwarf cherries, and 
the wild stock does for making tall orchard trees. It is 
called the perfumed cherry on account of the pleasant 
scent of the wood when it is burned, and it is named 
iois de St. Lucia in Prance ; it has long been used as 
stocks for cherries, and it will do in more ordinary soils 
than will suit common cherry stocks. It may be 
obtained from the Mahaleb by layers or cuttings. 
Cherry stocks grown from the kernel may be sown in 
Pebruary, the stones having been kept in sand till then, 
planted out in October, and budded the next season for 
dwarf trees, or allowed to grow tali if they are wanted 
for standards. 

Apples are grafted on crab or Doucin stocks : the 
first for large, the other for dwarf growth. They are 
also grafted on the white thorn. Pears for dwarf and 
easy garden culture, are grafted on the Quince 
^tock, and those of a larger growth on free stocks. 
Almonds are budded on seedling plum stocks. Apricots 
may be budded on apricot or plum stocks, and a wild 
plum is used with advantage. Peaches and nectarines may 
be budded on almond stocks peach stocks, raised from the 
stone, or the muscle plum : the last is best in our climate. 
Plums are grafted or budded on the muscle stock, or 



PEOPAGATIOIf AKD IMPKOYEMENT. 13 



on the Brussels stock. Cherries on the Mahaleb and 
wild stock. Tor all trees which are apt to exhaust 
themselves by the exudation of gum, budding is 
preferable to grafting. Medlars may be grafted on 
a white thorn or on a pear. 

Figs, vines, gooseberries, and currants are not grafted, 
but are increased by cuttings or layers. Raspberries 
and strawberries may be grown from seed, but are 
generally increased, the first by dividing of the suckers, 
the last by the runners. 

Eaising plants from seed is a method of propagation 
requiring great care and skill, and often leading to the 
production of choice new varieties. The seed chosen 
may be either itself of the choicest kind, or scientifically 
improved by crossing two fine sorts. If it be wished 
to raise trees or plants of one particular variety, not 
only should the best tree be chosen, but the finest fruit, 
ripened under the most favourable circumstances, must 
also be selected. However fine the old tree from which 
seed is taken, the seedlings from it will not do it credit, 
unless it be grown in a genial position, and unless its 
fruit, the germ of the future seedlings, be grown to 
high perfection, under genial influences, and brought to 
fuU maturity in size, ripeness, and development of juice, 
flavour, and saccharine matter. To give a good chance 
of success with seedlings, therefore, raise them from the 
finest fruit, plucked from the finest tree, and ripened 
and brought to perfection under the most favourable 
circumstances possible. 

Cross fertilization, or setting the flower of one tree 
with the pollen from the flower of another,, is a valuable 
way of improving kinds. It is generally only varieties 
of the same fruit w^hich can be thus crossed, but 
valuable qualities are often united by it. In this 
crossing the ofl'spring will most resemble the stock from 
which the pollen is taken, but will also follow some of 
the constitutional peculiarities of that produciug the 
seed. That fine plum, Coe's golden drop, w^as grown 
from a greengage, the flower of which had been set with 
pollen from the yellow Magnum Bonum: the Grafton 



14 THE OECHAED JlNB FSTJIT GAEDEN. 

cherry, set with pollen from the white-heart, produced 
the Elton cherry. Varieties thus crossed are sometimes 
more productive than either parent, and their produce 
is susceptible of improvement by careful culture. 

Grrowing from eyes is a simple mode of propagation, 
/ now much used for making vines, and for some other 
/ purposes. A single eye, a leaf bud, is extracted from a 
i plant, and planted with due allowance of heat and 
V- moisture, and in time it too becomes a plant. 

Striking cuttings is an easy method of propagation in 
the case of all plants which strike easily. Some hardy 
fruit trees will throw out roots tolerably readily. The 
cuttings must each possess several leaf buds, and be 
planted with one or two below the ground, the others 
above it. The lowest bud will soon throw out root, and 
imbibe nourishment from the earth, while those above 
ground, developing their leaves, will draw up nourish- 
ment, until in time the cutting becomes a plant or tree. 
The end of October is the time for taking cuttings, if 
the tree have lost its leaves by then, but any time from 
the fall of the leaf to the first swelling of the buds in 
spring will do ; for callus, the matter exuding from the 
edges of a wound in a plant during the process of 
healing, through which in cuttings the roots and per- 
pendicular vessels connected with them proceed, forms 
at the lower end even during winter. The situation in 
which the cuttings are planted should be neither sunny 
and dry, nor too shady, as that would make them run 
up weak. The north side of a wall, not less than four 
feet from it, is a good position : here they will be in 
shade during the spring, while they are rooting, and by 
about midsummer, when all that take will be well 
established, they will thrive in the sunshine which they 
will then get. Plant the cuttings rather firm at their 
lower ends, and if very dry weather occur in jMarch, 
April, or May, give them a sprinkling of water now 
and then. 

A way of planting cuttings of fruit trees was 
described in the Cottage Gardener a few years back, by 
means of which I have seen kinds of fruit trees saved 



15 



whicli I should have been sorry to have lost. In such 
a locality as that above described, and in October, as 
soon as the leaves are down, make two shallow parallel 
trenches, one foot apart, and raise the earth thrown out 
upon the ridge between them. From the fruit trees 
which are to be propagated, cut straight twigs a foot 
and a half long, taking especial care to leave the ends 
uncut. Plant the two ends of each cutting, one in each 
trench, arching the centre over the ridge, close down 
upon it, cover all with earth except the centre bud, and 
it will in time throw out roots and leaves, and become a 
little tree by the following summer. 

Laying or layering is growing cuttings without sever- 
ing the connection between them and the parent tree 
until after the root is formed. To facilitate the growth 
of root, the layers are often tongued, i. e., the stem to 
be layered is partly cut through, close to a bud, when 
the roots will p)ush into the earth more easily than they 
would make their way through the firm bark. The 
layers are partly covered with earth, the ends being left 
out, firmly pegged down, allowed to root from the 
underground portion, and, when well grown, separated 
from the parent tree or plant. 

Sprays of plants may be rooted in pots, while still 
growing on the tree. Pass a shoot through the hole in 
a garden pot, giving it a slight cut or twist by the bud 
nearest the bottom of the pot or not, according to the 
nature of the plant for rooting readily or the contrary, 
fill the pot with mould or compost, and the spray, if 
rooted and grown, may be separated the following 
autumn. This is good for wood which will not bear 
bending. 



CHAPTEE ly. 

Ik the method of multiplying the trees of one variety 
without change of character, so well known as grafting, 
i. e.j uniting a scion, or producing shoot, of one plant to 



16 



THE OECHAED AJ^D FEITIT GAEDEJN', 



the root, branch, or stem of another, for it to grow and 
take life from the root, the scion and stock must be of 
nearly related species. 

The uses of grafting are many. By it trees of a 
desired kind may be multiplied to almost any extent. 
Those of too puny or too rampant a habit, may be 
adjusted by grafting on a stock of greater or less vigour 
of growth than the tree itself. AYhen seedling trees 
are grafted, it accelerates their productiveness; shoots 
from seedlings will be hastened into bearing by being 
grafted on stocks, and kinds may be adapted to soils 
in which they would not do well on their own roots, by 
being grafted on stocks suited to the locality. Lastly, 
old kinds may be renovated, renewed, and saved from 
annihilation, to some extent, by grafts. 

The nature of the stock does not change that of the 
fruit of the scion ; it only conveys nourishment to it, so 
that it may alter it in productiveness, and in some 
degree in size, but not in form, flavour, or other pro- 
perties more intimately belonging to the kind. 

To facilitate the rising of the sap, the stock should 
be in rather a forwarder state of growth than the graft. 
If the parent tree and the stock be in an equal state of 
forwardness, it is best to cut the grafts, and stick their 
ends into the earth in a cool, shady spot, and leave them 
for a certain number of days, or even for some weeks. 
The operation should be performed neatly and promptly, 
and none but a keen, clean knife used, for dirt or a 
ragged cut is likely to prevent success. Eoth stock and 
scion should be in a thoroughly healthy condition. 
Kever cut for a scion an unhealthy-lookiug twig, or one 
which is faulty in the bark, but choose fine, healthy^ 
well-ripened shoots of the preceding year's growth. 

There are several different kinds of grafting, but 
whatever the kind, the manipulation is similar in all 
important points. The stock for almost all grafting is 
topped back to the proper height, it and the scion 
cleanly cut to fit each other, the scion or graft accurately 
adjusted and tied on with firmness and precision, from 
a little below to a little above the union, taking care 



GRAFTING A.lsB BrDDrN'G. 



17 



that the tie be tight enough to keep the graft immovable, 
but not tight enough to cause any danger of its cutting 
or bruising the bark. 

For tying the graft, wide strands of bass, or bast, used 
to be best liked, but now soft cotton is found to answer 
better, and worsted is better still. 

"When the graft is aflSxed and tied on, the tie is 
surrounded with clay worked into a tenacious dough, to 
exclude the air and keep the part intended to adhere 
moist. 

To make grafting clay, beat some horse droppings to 
pieces, and pass them through a half-inch riddle, mix 
this well with equal parts of clayey loam and fresh cow 
manure, add a little road drift, and knead all together 
into a pliant dough of uniform consistence. Shape this 
in a spindle-shaped lump over the spot where the graft 
is fixed on, and smooth the outside with the hand 
dipped in fine ashes, which enables the grafter to close 
the surface perfectly. Look over the grafts a few days 
after they are put in, and if the clay show cracks any- 
where, they should be closed, and the surface made 
smooth again. 

Clayey loam or brick earth, well beaten with a fourth 
part of fresh, sheer cow dung, and a little hay cut into 
pieces an inch long to bind it, makes a good grafting 
clay, and many gardeners use moist clay alone, or a 
little cow manure plastered over the graft, and covered 
with moss or coarse brown paper, tied on. 

Grafting wax, for the same purpose as the grafting 
clay, is made by melting in a pipkin over the fire half an 
ounce of wax and half an ounce of fat ; half an ounce of 
red sealing-wax is broken in pieces and put into this, and 
the whole is kept stirred until all are thoroughly miclted 
and mixed together ; a very little honey is stirred in at 
last, and the mixture is poured into moulds, and still 
stirred gently until it begins to set. 

Another grafting wax is made by melting together 
bees' wax, pitch, tallow, and a little bit of resin. 

To use the grafting wax, make it warm enough to be 
^ laid on the graft with a brush, paint it on until it is a 

c 



18 THE OECHARD AND ERriT GAEDEN. 



quarter of an inch thick, and then dust a little dry sand 
all over the surface, to prevent its melting. 

The spring is the season for grafting. The time 
should be chosen when the sap is just rising in the 
stock, and before the buds in the scion begin to swell. 
Promptitude is as necessary as precision- — a dawdling 
grafter or budder is very seldom a successful one. The 
weather favourable to the operation is that which is 
mild and moist ; a drying east wind is fatal to success, 
and cold weather is bad, whether it be dry or w^et. 
Some persons encourage the sap to rise by covering the 
earth round the roots with litter, rotten tan, or decayed 
leaves, and others even water with warm water after 
the grafting. 

It is necessary that the inner bark of stock and scion 
be intimately united. This union is sometimes of the 
bark all round, as is generally the case with whip- 
grafting, and sometimes only on one side, as in side- 
grafting. 

"Whip or splice-grafting is that in most use for fruit 
trees. It is best for the stock and scion to be the same 
size in diameter, as then the union of the two takes 
place all round, and is very secure ; but this is not 
imperative, as the scion will grow if the inner bark or 
alburnum in stock and scion intimately join in one part 
only. Prune off the stock to the desired height. The 
graft should have at least three or four buds. Trim the 
graft by cutting it with a long, diagonal cut, nearly, but 
not quite through, and finish the operation with a short 
cut, to meet the long cut at an angle. This second cut, 
making a kind of notch, fixes the graft much more 
firmly than when formed with one cut sloping all the 
w^ay. The stock must be cut with a tongue to fit the 
notch in the graft as exactly as possible, stock and graft 
accurately placed inner bark to inner bark, and bound 
round and round securely with soft cotton, or strips of 
bass. 

If the stock be larger round than the graft, the 
portion of the graft left by the long cut must be 
adjusted to the outer side of the stock, the notch being 



GEArTi:s'a xisd budding. 



19 



inward. This inequality in size of stock and graft is 
often unavoidable, especially in grafting old trees. In 
grafting young on old, allowance must be made for the 
greater thickness and roughness of the outer bark on 
the old tree, as compared with the younger bark on the 
graft. 

CrowD or wedge-grafting is sometimes used for fruit 
trees. The graft is shaped into a wedge of rather a 
sharp angle, with two equal slanting cuts, a cleft to 
correspond is cut in the stock, and the graft fixed as 
in whip-grafting. If stock and graft do not agree in 
size, bark must fit to bark on one side. Vines are 
grafted in this manner. In their case, some growing 
portion must be left on the stock above the graft, to 
draw up the sap and prevent bleeding. 

Cleft-grafting is a kind of crown-grafting which is 
often found convenient for stocks of large size, for if 
they are an inch or more in diameter, whip-grafting will 
not do well in their case. Cut or saw ofi* the head of 
the stock, pare the bottom of the graft into a wedge 
an inch and a half long, make a cleft in the stock, with 
a strong knife or cutting chisel, about two inches deep, 
leaving the chisel in to keep it open. Insert the graft, 
adjusting the thin end of the wedge in the bottom of 
the cleft, with bark to bark : remove the chisel, and 
the cleft will hold the graft firm. Tie it and cover it 
with clay. If the stock be large enough, a second graft 
may be inserted at the other end of the cleft, opposite 
the first ; and I have known three or four difterent sorts 
of apples grafted on an apple tree several years old, 
which did not bear, and all do well. 

Saddle-grafting is like crown-grafting reversed : the 
stock is shaped into a wedge, the cleft is made in the 
graft, which is placed over the wedge, like a saddle. As 
in all grafting, bark and bark must meet, at any rate on 
one side, and the tying is the same. 

A peculiar kind of saddle-grafting is practised in the 
apple-growing counties, sometimes even in the middle 
of summer. The stock is larger than the graft, which 
^is slit up about four inches, one-third from one side. 

c 2 



20 



THE OECHAED AXD FRriT GAEDE^". 



The stock is cut off in a slanting direction ; the outer 
bark is then cut through in a vertical line from the 
centre of the highest point, the slit a little opened, and 
the stoutest cut of the graft inserted, inner bark to 
inner bark. The thinner strip of the graft is carried 
over to the other side of the stock, and in like manner 
inserted in a long vertical opening ; when the graft is 
tied in the usual way. 

Side-grafting is sometimes useful to provide against 
the falling off of old trees, to utilize a healthy trunk of 
a poor bearing sort, or in case of scarcity of stocks. A 
downward, slightly slanting cut is made on one side of 
the stem of the tree. The graft is slit up, and each divi- 
sion pared off to a thin edge, one side is inserted in the 
cleft and the other bound outside. Por side-grafting of 
smaller shoots, cut a slice downwards on one side of the 
stock, and remove this shave down with a horizontal cut, 
shave off a bit of the stock, cut it straight at the 
bottom to fit, and fit it and fasten it on. This grafting 
may sometimes be found advantageous, as the head of 
the stock being left on, draws up the sap. It is some- 
times done by merely shaving off a strip from the stock, 
and the same from the graft, adjusting and tying them, 
and then placing the lower end of the graft in a vial of 
water. 

Shoulder or chink-grafting is as the name describes it ; 
both stock and graft are cut in a zigzag, which of course 
offers more surface of alburnum to unite. The stock 
and graft must agree in size. 

For root-grafting, or grafting on the root, sometimes 
practised to utilize large scions, this zigzag cut is used. 
Neither that nor peg-grafting (for which the graft is 
cut in the form of a peg to fit into a receptacle miade in 
the stock) is much used for fruit trees. 

Inarchingj a plan for making the graft take and grow 
before it is severed from the parent tree, can only be 
used with close neighbours or plants in pots. AVhere it 
is practicable, it is excellent for all kinds that take 
badl3^ Tie together the branches that will unite with- 
out strain, and mark on both the spot which is best for 



21 



the union. Then in both the stock and in the branch 
to be attached, pare away the bark with, a little of the 
wood to it in strips two or three inches long ; those on 
stock and graft to agree. Make a slit npw^ards in the 
branch, so as to form a kind of tongue, and a slit down- 
wards in the stock. Unite the two, slipping the tongue 
in the graft into the slit in the stock : take care that the 
inner barks touch, and tie them firmly with cotton or 
bass. Each graft should be supported by a stake, or 
the rugging of the wind may loosen them. Inarching, 
like other grafting, is performed in the spring ; in about 
four months the graft may be cut from the parent tree, 
with great care and delicacy not to disturb the adhesion. 
The stock may then, too, be headed back to near the 
graft, and the clay and bandages removed, and replaced 
with new ones, to remain a fortnight or three weeks 
longer. If the union be not found to be perfect, at the 
end of four months or so, the new bandages had better 
be kept on for another year, and the graft still left for 
that time attached to the parent tree. This kind of 
grafting is used for vines, orange trees, camelias, and 
similar plants. 

After whip-grafting and the other most usual me- 
thods, the clay may be removed and the ties loosened, 
when the graft has made shoots a few inches long, but 
care must be taken not to disturb them prematurely. 
In the open air, all the ties may generally be finally 
removed in August ; and if the grafted plants have been 
kept in-doors, rather earlier ; but windy weather should 
be avoided for the purpose, to prevent accidents. 

Budding (or grafting by growing a portion from one 
tree on a stock from a bud instead of from a scion) is 
often used with fruit trees, especially in the case of 
those which are apt to bleed or exude gum from cuts in 
the wood. It has the same uses and advantages as 
other kinds of grafting. 

Buds are said to be two years later than grafts in 
producing fruit, but where grafts are difficult to get, 
they have the advantage that a single bud wdll suffice, 
^ whereas a graft must have three or four. Buds from 



22 



THE OECHAED AND PRUIT GARDEIf. 



seedling peaches and pears, will bear earlier than the 
parent trees, and produce finer fruit, if they are inserted 
on robust stocks in a similar though inferior manner 
to scions so used; but if pears are budded before the 
end of August, they will produce branches and no 
bloom. It is not necessary that the inserted bud 
should take the position of a bud removed, but some 
persons consider that it does better so placed. A bud 
will often take more readily than a graft, and it has 
another advantage: if a graft fails in the spring, the 
bud may be inserted at its right time, and so save a 
year. 

Buds take well on shoots of one or two years' growth, 
but not on old wood. The time for budding is July or 
August, according to the season, and the weather should 
be mild and moist. Early in the morning, after 3 p.m., 
or in the evening of a cloudy day, after gentle rain, and 
when there is no wdnd, is best. The stock may be 
smaller than for grafting, and it is rather best to put 
the bud on the north side, but it must be on a clear 
portion of the stem, free from knots. It is necessary 
that the stock should be in a thriving state, i. e., suffi- 
ciently supplied with sap, and should have matured its 
growth for the season, which generally happens in 
peaches, apricots, cherries, and plums, about the middle 
of August ; but from the middle of July, favourable 
states of stocks and buds, and favourable states of 
weather, should be carefully watched and taken advan- 
tage of Watering the stock and the tree from which 
the buds are to be taken the evening before, will 
generally do good. 

The bud should be from wood of the current year: 
that to be taken for budding is the little bud which 
pushes at the axis of the leaf- stalk, and it is cleanly 
cut with a small oval shield of the bark of the stem 
behind, and this shield is cut deep enough to include a 
thin shave of the wood. Choose one at the root of a 
well-developed, faultless leaf. The buds are ready when 
the bark will easily separate from the wood, and one 
from about the middle of a shoot should be fixed on, as 



GEAPTIXG A^'D BUDDIXG. 



23 



those near the base take less readily, and those from the 
■end are said to make too much wood. If the bark will 
not rise, i. e., will not part freely from the wood, the bud 
will not take. 

Dexterity and quickness are absolutely necessary in 
budding, as the bark and bud must not have time to 
dry before the operation is completed. Therefore have 
ready all that will be necessary before beginning. A 
budding-knife is the usual and best tool, but any good 
sharp knife will do : some bass cut and divided into 
pieces of convenient length and width, or else worsted 
or cotton in lengths, and the twigs with the buds, 
divested of leaves and placed in water, mnst all be at 
hand. 

Before cutting the bud, prepare the incision ready to 
receive it. Determine the exact spot where the bud is 
to go, and cut a horizontal incision of sufficient length 
to admit the shield attached to the bud, about the third 
of an inch in length, a little more or a little less, 
according to the size of the bud. Then make a per- 
pendicular cut to meet the centre of this, beginning 
half an inch (more or less) below the horizontal cut, 
and cutting upwards to meet it at a right angle. The 
whole incision will then have the form of a T, and 
should be deep enough to go just down to the wood. 
Some persons wrap a bit of something wet round it. 
Cut the bud with a small oval slice of the bark and 
wood to it. If the bud is very backward, do not disturb 
the small shave of wood behind it, but if it be pretty 
well formed this may be carefully removed with the 
point of the knife. The root of the bud behind the 
shield should look plump. 

Cut and prepare the bud as quickly as possible, raise 
the bark on the stock a little down each side of the 
longitudinal cut in the T-shaped incision with the thin 
end of the budding-knife, if one be used, and then slip 
the little shield of the bud in at the cross cut, and 
downwards under the bark to the bottom of the T j cut 
off the top of the shield to fit the top of the T, and tie 
y the bud in pretty firmly with wet bass or worsted, 



24 



THE OECHAED A^sD FEUIT GAEDE>*. 



beginning with a turn just above the bud, ^yo^king to a 
little below the incision, and upwards to a little above it. 
The leaf-stalk should be left to the bud to hold it by. 

In unfavourable seasons a watering with liquid ma- 
nure at a temperature of 90° may be given to the 
parent tree the day before, to make the sap rise. 

When the bud is fixed, tie a leaf from an evergreen 
by each end, to arch over the newly inserted bud, to 
shade it. 

In a few weeks the buds should be looked at, and the 
ties loosened if they seem too tight ; and they may be 
removed when the bud has firmly grown into the stock. 

For niche-budding the bud is cut with a stouter 
shield, which is cut straight at the bottom. A notch is 
then made in the stock, round at the top and flat at the 
bottom, for the shield to fit into exactly, and in adjusting 
it care is taken to unite the inner bark of stock and 
shield. As it is the inner bark which grows, as in 
grafting, this is rather on the principle of grafting than 
of budding, in which it is the bud which throws its fibres 
into the stock. Some persons consider that for this 
budding a spot should be chosen in the stock where a 
bud is removed. 

Annular budding is similar in character. The branch 
from which the bud is taken must be as thick as the 
stock ; if a little thicker it is of no consequence. A 
ring of bark with a bud on it, opened at one side to let 
it off", is taken, a ring like it is removed from the stock, 
and the ring with the bud put on and tied. It is 
considered to answer very well with thick-barked trees. 

Beginners in grafting and budding would do well to 
get the opportunity of watching the process under the 
hands of dexterous operators, and having once seen it, 
written instructions can be much more readily followed. 



CULTUEE OF FEUIT TKEES. — PErXI^'a. 



25 



CHAPTEE Y. 

CULTrEE OP FEEIT TEEES. — PEL'^'I^s'a. 

The fruit of the wild stock and of our cultivated trees, 
differing from each other as the aborigines of Australia 
and the best-educated natives of London, are yet 
scarcely more dissimilar than the produce of a tree 
which is just grafted or budded and then left to chance, 
and that of one kept in a high state of cultivation 
by pruning, training, manuring, and all the attention 
necessary to bring it into first-rate order in the flavour 
and size of its fruit. It is as unfair to leave a fruit tree 
to nature and expect good fruit from it, as to leave 
a child uneducated and look for fine sentiments and 
learning in the adult. 

"Flavour in fruit is very dependent on a healthy 
development of the leaves, which again depends on air 
and light, as much as on the nourishment derived from 
the earth, so that clear, pure air is favourable to the 
production of good fruit, and there are few kinds which 
will thrive in a smoke-laden atmosphere. 

Manuring is often necessary to keep up the stamina 
of the trees, but it must be administered with caution, 
or it may only produce a rampant growth of foliage 
and wood instead of fruit. "When trees are planted the 
earth should be made tolerably rich with manure of a 
good lasting kind, as already mentioned, and that after- 
wards given must be so used as to encourage the roots 
to keep near the surface of the ground. A little 
mulching or spreading a layer of litter on the surface 
round the tree (to be afterwards lightly forked in in 
winter) may sometimes do good when the, fruit is 
swelling. 

The most important items of cultivation, after good 
^ air and good soil, are pruning and training. 



26 THE OECHARD XNB IRUIT aAEDEN. 



Pruning is necessary to increase the productiveness 
of all fruit-bearing trees, since a too rampant growth 
precludes fruitfulness. JSTature impels a tree to vigorous 
growth of foliage and wood, and little production of 
fruit, the result of free, unchecked circulation of the 
sap : art, by checking the free circulation of the sap, 
by pruning and training, forces the tree to bear bloom 
instead of leaf-buds only. This is the principle on which 
we prune our trees. 

The object of pruning is so to regulate the branches 
as to encourage bloom and the full development of the 
fruit, without too much curtailing the leaf surface, in 
which the circulation of the juices takes place, and 
different kinds of pruning are applicable to different 
fruit trees. 

In pruning, the productiveness of the tree in hand, 
and its beauty, must both be made matters of considera- 
tion. Every tree is a study in itself, and every cut 
with the pruning-knife must be matter of calculation, 
and be made for some reason regarding present or future 
growth and productiveness, or the just balance necessary 
to form a handsome tree. 

Most kinds of trees require summer and winter 
pruning. For summer pruning much labour and loss 
of sap may be saved by rubbing off the buds or nipping 
off tiny shoots which are going to produce branches that 
would have to be removed afterwards. This prevention 
of evil should be constantly attended to throughout the 
growing season. The object of summer pruning is to 
mature the fruit, and improve the beauty of the tree : 
it may be begun in May. Trees of a naturally rampant 
growth should be allow^ed to retain more main branches 
than those of a more puny habit, to give play to the too 
abundant sap ; and as growth proceeds, shoots which are 
or will be wanted must be trained in from time to time, 
to prevent their starting from their place and taking a 
wrong direction. 

The winter pruning is to regulate the main branches 
and the young wood of the past summer, and the time 
for it is open weather, from the fall of the leaf until the 



cuLirEE OF lEriT TEEEs.— p^.^^"'I^'G. 



27 



sap begins to rise in spring ; but it bad better be done 
in good time. The trained trees which require new 
wood every year, — such as peaches, nectarines, apricots, 
and vines, must be taken down from the wall for the 
main pruning. 

The mode of bearing of different sorts of trees must 
be considered before cutting them. 

Apples, pears, plums, and cherries bear on spurs, or 
short, robust side-shoots from half an inch to one or 
two inches long, growiug from wood of from two to 
twenty years old. The same branches bear year after 
year, so that when these trees are trained to a good 
head, no more wood is wanted than any that may occa- 
sionally be required to train up to supply the place of 
unproductive or dead branches. Constant nipping back 
is tlierefore the most important pruning they require. 

In summer, to throw the strength into the bearing 
spurs, all the shoots should be cut back, except leading 
shoots, which are necessary to draw up the sap : and in 
winter, all the branches should be so radically thinned 
out where necessary as to let in plenty of air and light 
to the heart of the tree, the leaciing shoots left in 
summer being shortened first. 

Peaches, nectarines, and apricots produce their fruit 
on one-year old wood ; thus that which grows this year 
produces next. In pruning these trees, therefore, the 
object to be kept in view is to leave a good supply of 
the finest young wood on fairly-grown shoots at regular 
distances, at every side, from the bottom of the tree to 
its extremities. In their summer pruning, rub off the 
leaf-buds which would produce crowded or cross-growing 
branches, and leave the rest. In winter, shorten the 
old wood, less or more, according to its strength, to 
make it throw out young wood in proper positions the 
following year, and train in the summer-grown shoots. 

Yines bear on wood of the same year, shooting from 
eyes on one-year old wood. Train in a sufficiency of 
shoots of the current year for producing the next year, 
and in winter shorten them to a few eyes each, to s'hoot 
and bear the following season. 



28 THE OECHARD AND FRTJIT GAKDEIs". 



Figs bear on one-year old wood, which must not be 
shortened, as the fruit comes on the ends ; but the tree 
should be judiciously thinned out in its non-active sea- 
son, and superfluous thickness may be prevented by 
disbudding, i. e.^ by rubbing off leaf- buds wherever they 
are too thick. 

Pilberts produce on one-year old wood, and the pruner 
must use his knife to encourage its production by 
shortening back robust sprays, to make them throw out 
laterally, and this may be done early in February, when 
the blossom shows, and cutting it away can be avoided. 

One main object to be kept in view in pruning is to 
let in air and light abundantly to the fruit in summer, 
and to all the branches and to the heart of the tree at 
all seasons. Winter pruning should not be done so 
early that the tree will shoot again, but in trees that 
produce from spurs it may, under particular circum- 
stances, take place before vegetation ceases, when the 
impetus given to the shortened branch will cause spurs 
to form. In every branch pruned consider the future, 
as in every tree that is cut i, peculiar circumstances will 
occur which can only be judged of on the spot, and at 
the time. Practice nnd observation patiently carried 
on can alone effect skill in pruning fruit trees. 

The knife for pruning should be sharp and clean, to 
make a neat, clean cut, which as a general rule should 
be on a slant, in woody stems, that the rain may run off. 
All dead branches should be neatly removed, and for 
this purpose a saw will often be required. "When the 
branch is partly sawed through from the upper surface, 
make a cut with the saw a short distance, to meet the 
first, from the under side, and when the branch is nearly 
sawed through, let it be held or tied with care, to sup- 
port its weight, and to prevent a splintering breakage at 
last. A splintered break in sawing a tree is a great 
eyesore, besides being injurious to the tree in letting 
moisture sop into the wood. 

It is often the fate of cultivators to have to take in 
hand and make the best of gardens of long standing, 
full of moss-grown, ill-used, cumbrous old trees, crowded { 



CULTURE OF FEUIT TEEES. PEUNI^TG. 29 

witli dead branches and unproductive wood. These trees 
are too old and un-get-at-able to be brought to order by 
any common treatment, but they need not therefore be 
despised and rooted up untried, for excellent old sorts 
are often hidden in their ungainly growth, and may be 
brought forth to show themselves with a little care, 
whereas it would take years to supply their place with 
young trees in good bearing. Leave such trees in their 
unsightly ugliness until the fall of the leaf. In the 
meantime taste the fruit, if any opportunity for so doing 
be given, to ascertain if it have capabilities. 

"When leaves and sap are down, take saw and pruning- 
knife in hand, and have no mercy on the old trees, but 
cut away most liberally, yet judiciously, of course. 
Eirst remove all the dead wood, sawing off the dead or 
dying branches down to the trunk with a smooth, clean 
cut, and if the white round left be an eyesore, it can be 
. rubbed over • with a little dark earth, rubbed up with 
cow manure. After this, thin out the branches well, 
leaving the middle of the tree quite open, and every 
branch divided from its neighbours by space enough to 
let in plenty of air, light, and sun, and prune the remain- 
ing branches in the right way, according to the kind. 
G-et a scrubbing-brush, soft or other soap, and plenty of 
water, and scrub all the bark of the trees, trunk and 
branches, as far as can be got at, thoroughly clean of 
moss, lichen, dirt, and insects. If the trees be very 
much reduced, a mulching of manure, to soak in with 
winter rains, may do good. 

Destruction, root and branch, is often recommended 
by gardeners, but this careful reformatory treatment of 
the old trees, with little more trouble and less expense 
than planting new ones, will often prove much more 
satisfactory in the look of the garden and in the fruit 
crop. As I said before, old fruit trees of fine sorts are 
not to be despised. 



30 



THE OECHAED A^'D FETJIT GAEDEX. 



CHAPTEE yi. 

CULTUEE OP FETJIT TEEES. — TEAI^'I>rG. 

PE^XI^^'G and training go hand in hand. The knife in 
the hand of the foreseeing pruner removes all that 
would spread into unsightly growth, and spares the 
buds and branches likely to grow in a direction to form 
the tree to productiveness, uniformity, and beauty. 
Thus the pruner does half the trainer's work, and leaves 
him little but the finishing up with the hammer and 
nails. As an education with a good foundation may 
finish itself, so a tree well cut will shape itself: the 
pruner's work is all-important, although that of the 
trainer makes a good continuation. In speaking of the 
culture of fruit trees, however, we cannot separate 
pruning and training, since pruning very often is train- 
ing (or reducing to shape, order, and productiveness) 
prophetically. 

Training, or regulating the position of the branches 
in fruit trees, has for its object both the free admission 
of light and air, and encouraging productiveness by 
turning the shoots aside from their upward growth. 
Indifferent bearers will often be brought to bear well 
by merely bending the branches dovrnwards, or to a 
right angle with the stem of the tree. The motion of 
the branches in the wind, and their upward growth, 
encourage free circulation of sap, whereas the develop- 
ment of fruit requires its retention in the bearing 
branches. On this account productiveness Is often 
created or improved by bending branches downwards, 
and on this principle, also (as well as from the warmth 
retained by a wall), training trees on walls or espaliers 
is advantageous. 

A tree intended for training should be reduced to the 
necessary order very early in life, by pruning it so that 



CULTTJEE OF FETJIT TEEES. — TEAIXIXG. 



31 



it may have only a few branches well placed for training 
into a fan-like shape. Eor espaliers, trees of similar 
growth must be chosen to those intended for training 
on walls. As a border to the paths in fruit gardens, 
they take less room than standards, and so are some- 
times valuable in small gardens. The training, too, en- 
courages productiveness and keeps them conveniently 
within reach for culture and for gathering the fruit. 
Iron hurdles are used by some cultivators for training- 
espaliers. They may be bought six feet long, and three 
feet high, with five bars, and weighing about 36 lbs. 
each, for 4iS. 6d. each ; those of stronger make would 
of course be more in proportion. Wooden ones, al- 
though less lasting, may be made tolerably permanent 
by fixing upright stakes, to remain, of oak or larch. 
These should be as near each other as two or three feet 
apart, and horizontal bars of a less lasting and less ex- 
pensive kind can be used, and renewed when necessary. 
A few intermediate uprights may be wanted just until 
the trees gain stability. 

Table trellises are trellises fixed horizontally about 
i half a yard from the ground. Arched trellis, a kind of 
arcade of wire, for training trees over, and some for 
single trees, in form like an umbrella, are fanciful and 
pretty. 

Grood trellises for currants may be made very simply 
of stout laths fixed in a large trellis pattern, meeting or 
crossing only at the top, bottom, and in the middle ; 
they are very convenient for covering the trees to 
preserve the fruit. Standard trees are those, as their 
name implies, which are grown to stand out without 
support from wall or trellis. Full standards are up- 
growing tall trees, generally several feet high in the 
trunk, before the branches divide to form a head. Half 
standards are standards the trunks of which are only 
j . two or three feet high before the spreading of the head. 
I Dwarf standards are trees which are of a dwarf habit of 
' growth, and they are by far the most advantageous kind 
■ for garden culture, as they are quite within reach, for the 
best culture, and for gathering the fruit. The dwarf 



32 



THE ORCHARD A^D FRIJIT GABDEJs'. 



habit depends on the stock used. Dwarf standards are 
kept in form by judicious pruning, and can easily be 
kept so open in the centre that the sun and air haye 
full influence oyer the tree and its fruit. 

QuenouiUe training, or training with one centre stem in 
such a manner that the whole tree has the shape of a 
spindle, small at the stem (of course), bulging out in the 
middle, and coming again to a point at the top, is good 
for dwarf trees, and has been yery fashionable with 
some Belgian and English pear-growers. The young 
tree from the first is trained to one central stem, which 
is shortened back to fifteen inches high for its winter 
pruning; this will make it throw out laterally. 

The side-shoots are trained horizontally, and the shoot 
produced from the highest bud is made to grow as 
straight upright as possible, during the summer, and 
then cut back so far as to make it shoot fifteen inches 
above the first round of shoots. The same process is 
continued until the tree is as high as it is wished to be. 
To make the side-shoots take the horizontal growth 
required for qiienoidlle training, fix little stakes round 
the tree, tie the lowest range of shoots to them in a 
horizontal direction, and then train each succeeding 
range to the one below, to giye all the same horizontal 
growth. The shoots thus arched downwards will soon 
bear, and they must be pruned to produce fruit-spurs 
like other trees ; but care must be taken in the pruning 
not to cut the shoots so short as to induce them to 
make a too crowded growth. Trees trained a Ja 
quenoiiille require more constant care and watching 
than usually trained dwarf trees, or they lose the 
peculiar form and become too bushy. The pear must 
be on the quince stock. 

Balloon training is curious, and peculiar. A standard 
of slender growth is chosen, and all the branches are 
trained OA^er downwards towards the ground. 

Pyramidal training is more popular than quenouille 
training ; and it has the advantages of beauty of growth, 
of keeping the trees within a manageable size, easy 
of culture, and safe from storms, and of leaving the 



CTJLTUEE OF FEriT TREES. — TEAIKIXG. 33 



' surrounding garden-ground unshaded and available for 
other crops. It will do for pears on quince stocks, 
apples on paradise stocks, cherries on Mahaleb stocks, 
and for plums, and it will produce finer fruit on a 
smaller area of ground than any other mode of culture. 

To produce a perfect pyramid, the little tree should 
be taken in training the year after it is grafted, and it 
should be one of a nice straight growth, with ^a fair 
supply of buds, from the insertion of the graft upwards. 
As in the qiienouille training, head it down to fifteen 
inches high, or rather taller, let it branch at the sides, 
and train the top shoot into a leader, as upright as 
possible. When this leading shoot is ten inches long^ 
nip ofi" the top ; it will produce side-shoots, which must 
be a little trained into form if necessary, and the top 
bud (if there are two or more, rub off all but one) may 
again be trained straight up for a leader. Early in 
September shorten all the shoots to six or seven buds, 
and take care to lead them out from the main stem by 
a little judicious training, that the young tree may not 
acquire too thick and cluttered a growth. The second 
year of training, the topped side-shoots will put forth 
plentifully ; when all these young shoots have put forth 
several leaves, their tops must be nipped off. This will 
be about June or July, according to the season and 
locality, and if these spurs shoot, the young shoots must 

' be nipped back to one leaf, but the leading shoot of each 
side branch must be left to grow until August, to draw 
up the sap, and to prevent the tree's exhausting itself 
by a too abundant side growth. In August these may 

h also be cut back. 

i If the buds so tend to one side as to leave the pyramid 
j irregular in growth, buds may be budded into the bare 

places, but only bad culture can render this necessary. 
The shoots left by the June nipping back will be pro- 
I ductive fruit-spurs the following year, and the pruniug 

can best be done with a pair of rose scissors. As the 
j tree grows older the same system of pruning is followed. 

The leading shoots left intact until August prevents 
\i ^too thick a growth of shoots, and the shoots nipped 



34 



THE OECHAED A^'D TEUIT GAEDEX. 



back ill summer form fruit-bearing spurs the following 
season. After the shortening of leading shoots in 
August, no ^Yinter pruning is required. 

The same system of pruning and training. /. e.. con- 
tinually nipping back all the shoots, except the leading 
shoots, through the summer, leaving the leading shoots 
until the sap begins to descend, and then shortening 
them, |ucceeds well with any dwarf trees, and produces 
most abundant crops of fruit under almost any circum- 
stances. In dwarf trees grown as bushes, winter thinning 
out of any branches that become too crowded is often 
necessary. 

In the August shortening of leaders, pear trees of very 
vio^orous growth, such as Beurre d'Amaulis. ]\Ionsieur 
le Cure, Buerre Diel, and others, should have them 
shortened back to eight or ten inches ; pears of medium 
vigour, such as Louise Bonne, Marie Louise, Buerre 
d'Aremberg, and such like, shortened to six inches : and 
pears of puny growth, like AVinter Xelis, to only four 
inches, because the abundant sap of the rampant growers 
will expend itself in a too crowded growth, if necessary 
scope be not allowed. Difference of soil, difference in habit 
of trees, even of the same kind, situation, and many other 
circumstances, will often make a considerable difference 
in the vigorous growth of particular trees. 

Cordon training, so much spoken of during the last 
few years, is a name introduced by French fruit-growers 
for the system which is the very soul of good fruit cul- 
ture, pinching in all the shoots, to form a succession of 
flower-buds. The ends of all the shoots on a branch are 
pinched off*, and thus made to produce bloom, so that 
each tree or each branch is kept to a single, unbranching 
stem. 

In cordon training, the whole tree is sometimes kept 
to a single stem. These trees are planted very close 
together against a wall, and are trained diagonally, at 
an angle ot" about 45°, all the trees being kept parallel 
with each other. Another models to train the branches 
in this manner, all starting from one upright centre 
stem. 



crLxrEE or rErix teees. — teai>'i>'&. 



35 



For vertical cordon training a young tree with a centre 
and two side branches is chosen, the centre branch is 
trained straight upright on the wall, and the side branches 
are trained horizontally, and their side branches again 
vertically, in parallel lines with the main stem. The 
pruning and management is like that of pyramidal 
trained trees, and the save of room will be found to be 
great. The vertical branches from the side branches 
may be trained eight inches from each other, as they are 
not to be allowed to branch at the sides. 

The diagonal cordon training is best for peaches, but 
the vertical cordon system does well for pears, cherries 
on the Mahaleb stock, plums and apples on the paradise 
stock. 

Cordon training on table trellises set on a slope, and 
covered with glazed frames, while the trees are in flower, 
and while the fruit swells, does well for apricots, peaches, 
and nectarines, and the necessary apparatus for such 
frames is less costly than the orchard-hous?. and much 
more portable. The radiation of heat from the earth 
makes the fruit very fine, and the same plan produces 
pears in great perfection. The lights should be taken off 
in July, and the fruit from that time left exposed to 
sun and air. In cold localities the frames may be left 
on a month later. 

Pears on the quince stock sometimes will not flourish 
on warm, shallow soils with chalk or gravel beneath. 
Pyramids on pear stocks will make better trees for such 
localities. A young grafted tree should be taken in 
hand, and treated and trained as the pyramid on the 
quince stock, mentioned some pages back. 

Eoot-pruning is had recourse to for the purpose of 
checking the over-luxuriance of trees, and thus not only 
keeping them to a manageable size, but creating pro- 
ductiveness by checking a too luxuriant growth. 

Abundance of sap. and its free, unimpeded circulation, 
tends to the growth of leaf-buds, and consequently to 
a vigorous increase of branches, whereas impeding the 
circulation of the sap causes fruit-buds to form in place 
of the more extiberant leaf-buds. I have known a 

D 2 



36 



THE OECHAED AKD TETJIT aAEDElS". 



voung apple tree forced into premature productiveness 
by careless neglect of removing the ligatures that tied 
the graft. Eoot-pruning beneficially impedes a too 
luxuriant growth by diminishing the quantity of sap 
in the tree, from diminishing the quantity of food 
with which it is supplied. It is especially good for 
rendering a tree productive which is barren from an 
over-luxuriant growth, i. e., from all the strength of the 
tree running to leaf, and for retaining a dwarf habit of 
growth, so suitable for keeping trees within due limits 
for easy culture, and well adapted to circumscribed 
space. Small trees are particularly convenient for 
pruning, for thinning, and gathering the fruit, for the 
comparative ease with which they can be suited with 
the soil most fit for them, whatever that of the garden 
they grow in may be, and the ease with which such 
trees can be shifted or removed at any time, or almost 
at any age. 

This reduction of the luxuriance of the tree by 
curtailing the luxuriance of the root, may be eifecte'd 
by taking up the trees, pruning the roots, and putting 
them in again, or by cutting away a portion of the 
roots without further disturbing the tree. It is 
reckoned that trees of a rampant habit of growth 
may with advantage be reduced in root to the extent of 
one-sixth, those of medium habit one-fourth, and those 
of delicate habit a third. 

The extremities of the roots, and roots inclined 
to shoot perpendicularly downwards, only should be 
pruned, and care must be taken not to injure the 
surface roots : these ^should, on the contrary, be en- 
couraged to keep near the surface by the application of 
manure occasionally. 

Our celebrated cultivator of fruit trees, Mr, Eivers, 
of Sawbridgeworth, is a great advocate of root-pruning, 
and recommends it for trees of cordon and pyramidal 
training, and for all dwarfs. 

Some growers recommend lifting or removing trees 
every two years, if they grow in a very rich soil ; but 
whatever may be said in favour of root-pruning by 



PEOTECTION. 



37 



means of a trench, it is advisable so to adapt the soil 
and culture to trees as to avoid the need of positive 
removal. 

Tor root-pruning by means of a trench, moist 
weather should be chosen soon after the gathering of 
the fruit, and a trench a foot and a half from the stem 
of the tree, if it be young, carefully opened, deep 
enough to bring the ends of the roots to sight. The 
horizontal roots should there be shortened with the 
pruning-knife, and wherever roots anywhere beneath 
the tree are taking a vertical growth, they should be 
cut through with a sharp spade ; the trench is afterwards 
filled in with rotted dung and mould. The distance of 
the trench from the tree may vary with its age : say, if 
18 inches for the first pruning, it may be 24 two years 
later, 30, 36, and so on. 

If a tree is thriving with healthful but moderate 
growth, and maturing fine fruit in abundance in pro- 
portion to its size, and has space for its growth, let 
well alone ; but if space be so great an object that the 
tree is outgrowing the room it has, and can have no 
more, or if it shows rampant growth and little fruit, try 
the efi'ect of root-pruning. 



CHAPTEE YII. 

PEOTECTIOIS". 

0?s'E great drawback to the successful growth of fruit 
in England is the bitter weather of our late springs. 
There are few localities, except in the (South-west, 
where fair promise in blossom is not frequently 
negatived by late, sharp, often sudden snaps of frost, 
unseasonable falls of snow, or hail-storms. Often 
our fruit trees have to bear up against the first and 
second in Eebruary and March, and the last in April 
and May, after a little genial promise of spring has 
encouraged the stone-fruit and pears into vegetation. 



38 



THE OKCHABD AKD TRriT GAEDEK. 



There are few fruit-growers who have not watched the 
opening buds with pleasure and hope, flattering them- 
selves that the apparently settled spring weather, and 
daily increasing heat of the sun were making the 
expectation of fruit a reality, when a sudden night 
frost, not seeming much perhaps, or storm of snow or 
hail, has raised doubt and fear ; they have watched the 
blossom after it, and soon the unmistakable black wither- 
ing of the pistil tells the tale of mischief done, soon 
to be confirmed by the non=swelling of the fruit, and its 
final falling off". 

This vexatious loss of fruit, sometimes year after 
year, renders some kind of protection to fruit trees 
almost necessary, in many localities, in the early spring. 
Apples often produce good crops, when pears and 
other fruits are cut cfi" to a great extent, because they 
bloom later : our frosts and other inclemencies are 
seldom late enough to interfere with them, but the 
earlier bloomiug fruits almost as seldom entirely 
escape. 

The best protection for wall fruit is a thin canvas, or 
other light u]aterial hung in front of the trees, touching 
the wall at the top and borne out from it at an angle 
to the bottom. Frost has such a downfalling tendency, 
that the most important thing is to give protection 
above the top of the tree. In fact frost so generally 
does mischief falling vertically, not piercing horizontally, 
that two or three feet breadth of covering fixed to the 
top of the wall, and carried out from it on a slant, will 
often save the crop. 

In fixing the protectiug material, great care must be 
taken that it cannot beat backwards and forwards upon 
the bloom, or chafe it in any way, or the mischief it may 
do may be greater than that from the weather. 

Almost any material will do ; it should be thin and 
light. Now that ladies' dresses are worn so full, the 
industrious may convert worn-out skirts into very good 
screens for fruit trees. A very thin material made of 
wool is perhaps the best of any, being a non-conductor 
of heat, and of a less clinging habit than cotton or 



PEOTECTIOX. 



39 



linen. Bunting may often be bought cheap in the 
form of old flags, and it does very well. 

Frigi domo is a material which has been much 
advertised for protecting trees from the late frosts, 
and from sun and wind when necessary. It is a mixture 
of hair and wool, a non-conductor of heat, thin and 
light. It may be bought at Is. 9d. per yard, two 
yards wide ; 2^. 8d. three yards wide ; and 35. 6d. four 
yards wide. A kind of thin canvas also is made on 
purpose for covering trees, which may be bought for 
hd. per square yard, and the same length will last with 
care for seven years. 

The protecting curtains, if I may so call them, should 
be fixed temporarily along the top of the wall, or hung 
on nails there, by means of little rings or loops along 
the upper edge. Poles fixed against the wall on a slant, 
with the bottom about three feet from the wall, will 
keep the curtain at a safe distance from the bloom. 

Another apparatus for fixing the curtains is to fix 
poles on a slant, three feet from the wall at the 
bottom, and close against it at the top. Two feet 
from the bottom pegs are fixed in the poles, and 
stand out nine inches in front ; the curtain is fixed on 
these pegs, and lies upon them, when it is not in use to 
cover the trees, and it is drawn up and let down by 
means of cords fixed to the top edge, and a ring and 
staple to the top of each pole. 

A wade, overhanging coping to a wall ofi"ers much 
protection to the trees trained upon it. 

Dwarf trees can easily be protected by means of a 
fixed framework round them, set in for the purpose. 
Pix four poles of exactly equal height, one at each 
corner of the tree, and a few inches taller than it, either 
with or without cross-bars, and fix over the top a square 
of grey calico, or any other cheap material. A piece of 
the same grey calico, or other material, may be tacked 
round the sides, leaving a vacancy at top and bottom for 
the free circulation of air. 

Many other things may be used to protect dwarf 
trees. Plat branching little boughs, like pea sticks, or 



40 



THE OECHAED AND FEUIT GAEDEK. 



fir branches in a pretty close plantation, set half round 
the tree to windward, may save a crop. 

As a preservative against still hoar-frost, when it 
seems severe enough to prove destructive, a little hay or 
withered fern raay be spread over the top of the tree. 
These hoar-frosts are often sharp enough to do great 
mischief, therefore do not trust them in the case of any 
tree which is likely to bloom early, but before any 
blossom opens, set in brushwood sticks around, a few 
inches taller than it, and bending inward, so as to lean 
over it, and over their tops throw fern or hay, putting 
it so in amongst the end twigs that the wind will not 
carry it away. 

A breadth of tiffany, or any other light fabric, may at 
night be thrown over the top of a dwarf tree, -flowering 
a little before our late springs render it safe, and taken 
off in the morning, if sunshine succeeds frost. 

A temporary tent-like house, made of any light fabric 
stretched over a light frame of wood, and fixed to the 
place where it is wanted for the time, by stakes, may be 
placed over early flowering trees, until the set fruit is 
safe. "When a house of this kind is used, allowance 
should be made for the growth of the young trees it is 
meant to cover, as the owner will most likely not wish 
to have a new one every year, or even every two years. 
The roof is the important thing for keeping off frost, 
and the sides may be covered frames, to lift up or let 
down at pleasure, for which bits of strong leather, 
securely nailed, will make sufficiently good hinges. 
Houses like this might be made to take to pieces and 
fold together flat, for packing away when not in use, 
which would make them last a long time. 

A simple, tolerably fine netting, especially if it be 
of wool, is often a sufficient protection to save the setting 
fruit. 

With very small trees, sprays of gorse or fern may 
sometimes be tied, so as to shelter the early blossom ; 
but in this and all protection, care must be taken that 
the screen used does not do harm by fretting the 
bloom or knocking against it. 



PEOTECTIOIf. 



41 



The next consideration is when to give protection. 
Unless frost be so severe as to cut off the leaf-buds, the 
blossom-buds are pretty safe until they begin to swell 
out quite plump. From that time they want protec- 
tion from frost, but they should not be deprived of any 
sunshine there may be. The time of the greatest 
danger to them is when the blossom is fully open, then 
if frost gets to it the pistil turns black, and the fruit is 
nowhere. "When the fruit is formed and swells out 
plump, it is comparatively safe, but even long after that 
frost, snow, hail, and bitter winds may cut it off, and 
strew it in unsatisfactory showers around the tree. 
Eegin, therefore, to protect before the blossom opens, 
and judgment, the locality and the weather, must decide 
when to take off the screens. 

Our late frosts are our fruit's worst enemies ; com- 
pared with the mischief they do, that worked by birds 
is small, and has, as compensation, great destruction of 
insects, more destructive by far than they. Carefully 
avoid injuring, as the garden's best friends, the wood- 
wren, the willow-wren or haybird, the golden-crested 
wren, the chiff-chaff, the nightingale, the whinchat, the 
stonechat, and the wheatear. Spare also the wagtails, 
the tree-pipet, or titlark, the meadow-pipet, the cuckoo, 
the fly-catcher, the flusher or lesser butcher-bird, and 
many others. 

The common wren, the hedge-sparrow, the robin, 
the redstart, the tomtit, the coaltit, the marshtit, and 
the greater tit, eat some small fruit, and a little seed 
and grain, but pay for it all over and over again by the 
weeds and insects they destroy. 

The blackcap, the babillard, the garden-warbler, the 
whitethroat, the missel-thrush, the song-thrush, and the 
blackbird, certainly do consume cherries and other fruit 
with little moderation, especially the thrushes and 
blackbirds, but they eat also so many insects, that it is 
better to scare them away at the time they can destroy 
most than to kill them. 

Inventions for scaring birds must be constantly, 
entirely, and radically altered, as they soon get so 



42 



THE OECHAED AIS^D rEUlT GAEDEIS". 



accustomed to the siglit of a scarecrow, and familiar 
with its appearance, that I have known a bird build in 
the habiliments of an old soldier set up to protect the 
garden. Noisy or moving scares are best, but they even 
must be often changed, or familiarity will breed con- 
tempt. 

Dwarf trees and currant bushes may be netted, as an 
effectual protection from the depredations of the birds. 

"Wasps I believe cannot be warded off. The only 
thing to do with them is to carry the war into the 
enemy's country, by watching them home and destroy- 
ing their nests. 

Protection from the heat of the sun is seldom wanted 
in our climate, on the contrary, we should often be glad 
of more of it than we can get, and a sufficiently luxuriant 
growth of leaves will shelter enough. 

Protection from wind in exposed localities is best 
managed by having dwarf trees, which may always be 
low, sheltered, and safe. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

DISEASES Alsl) loS^SECTS. 

One destructive disease of fruit trees, canker, has been 
described in the chapter on the choice of young trees. 
Canker, properly so called, is a kind of dry sore, but 
the name is also sometimes applied to a kind of ulcer 
discharging sap or gum. 

Old trees are more frequently attacked by canker 
than young ones, and the golden pippin, about the 
oldest apple we have, suffers from it most injuriously. 
Irony gravel as a subsoil is sure to bring canker. Sour, 
badly -drained ground will also occasion it ; several other 
inducing causes have been before mentioned, and it 
attacks the roots as well as the branches. 

If it have greatly gained head it is incurable, and the 
only plan is to destroy the tree, improve the soil, if 



DISEASES AND INSECTS. 



43 



necessary, and plant a young tree in the place. A 
cankered tree is not worth grafting. 

Sometimes the canker is on a limb \Yhich can be 
entirely removed : cut it out cleanly and entirely, and 
thin the tree so liberally generally as to leave no 
branches or even twigs to rub and chafe each other. 
If the tree be of a sluggish growth, it may be thoroughly 
cut back, but this will not do with trees of luxuriant 
growth, as their efforts to make more wood will increase 
the evil. In their case lessen the richness of the soil by 
mixing in less fertile earth, drift-sand, or something of 
that kind, avoid the use of manure in the neighbour- 
hood of the tree, and cut away some of the roots. The 
golden pippin will bear plentiful pruning. 

Unless trees are very old and far gone, canker may 
generally be got rid of by letting in plenty of air and 
light, by necessary improvement of the soil, by heading in, 
pruning, by cutting the tap-root, if it pierce downwards, 
and last, not least, by scrubbing the bark of trunk and 
branches as far as possible with soapsuds and urine, 
and covering up all wounds with cow manure beaten up 
with clay, to prevent the disease attacking them or 
spreadiug. 

Old overgrown trees are often starved to death for 
want of manure, their owners neglecting to calculate 
how much large trees have to do with the nourishment 
they draw from an area of earth, small in proportion to 
their size. The quantity of manure to be given to fruit 
trees with advantage is a question which practice, ex- 
perience, and reflection only can determine, and the 
circumstances of almost every tree may vary with 
regard to it. The thing to avoid in giving manure is 
the encouragement of a too rampant growth, at the 
expense of fruit. The thing to avoid in withholding 
it is starving the tree, by want of nourishment, into 
premature decay, and the production of poor, immature 
fruit, cracking instead of ripening. Moderately mulch- 
ing large old trees, which are plentiful bearers, can 
seldom do harm, and once in three years a little of 
the surface-mould round them may be taken up iu 



44 THE ORCHAED AND PRTJIT GARDEN. 



October, slush from the manure reserve laid on, and 
covered again with the earth. A good pruning should 
accompany this treatment, and it will often renew the 
constitution of the tree, and restore the fruit in size 
and clearness of skin. 

Mildev/ is a troublesome and injurious fungous 
growth, especially attacking peaches, nectarines, apricots, 
and vines. It is said to be generated in the earth, the 
result of too much moisture at the roots, and thence 
to communicate itself generally over the tree, or over 
a portion of it, by means of myriads of minute seeds 
which are wafted through the air. It is worst in damp, 
muggy seasons, and I think draught developes it. It 
acts upon the tree by spreading over it, filling up the 
pores, and impeding respiration. There are several 
kinds which infest the rose tree. That which attacks 
stone fruit is the Oidium erysepTioides, and that of the 
vine, Oidium Tucheri, which will cover the fruit so as to 
render it useless. 

It may be discouraged at the root of the tree by 
draining and by digging in lime, and the tree itself 
should have a due mixture of warmth and moisture ; but 
sulphur is the popular and invariably used remedy. 
With vines especially the sulphur is often used exces- 
sively, by dusting it over leaves and fruit ; machines are 
made, at a cost of two or three shillings each, for diffusing 
it equally ; but the remedy of covering grapes with 
sulphur is so nearly as bad as the disease, that it is best 
to use all possible caution for keeping it off, by protect- 
ing the roots from stagnant damp, by constantly regu- 
lating the temperature of the house, by guarding against 
draught, a cold damp, or a hot dry heat. 

Some administer the sulphur in fumes by mixing it 
with whitewash, and washing the hot- water pipes, or, 
if flues are used, by washing with it the sides farthest 
from the stove ; or sulphur may be placed on a hot-water 
plate and the water kept boiling below with a lamp. A 
kind of paint for washing over the stems and branches 
may be made by mixing 1 lb. of soft soap and 1 lb. 
of sulphur into a paste with warm water, and a small 



DISEASES AKD INSECTS. 



45 



wine-glass of spirit of turpentine. Another recipe is 
to boil half a pound of tobacco for an hour in a covered 
saucepan, mix the decoction with the soap, &c., and add 
water enough to make two gallons of the whole. 

Another mixture for the stems may be made by beat- 
ing together half a pound of sulphur, a quarter of a 
pound of soft soap, and two ounces of pepper, stir it 
into two gallons of water, let it boil for twenty minutes, 
thicken it with lime until it is thick enough to lay on in 
a coat, like paint with a brush, and stir in soot enough 
to make it a pale slate- colour, that it may be less of an 
eyesore upon the trees than glaring white would be. 

A good wash may be made of clay, sulphur, and water, 
which will very likely clog less than these. 

Except in extreme cases, it is better to avoid washes 
of the thick consistence of paint, as they cannot but be 
injurious by excluding air and impeding respiration. 

Exudation of gum sometimes injures trees which are 
subject to it, especially the cherry. Avoid planting in 
over-rich soil and other circumstances likely to create 
too luxuriant a growth, and take care that the tree does 
not get wounded or rubbed in the bark ; both causes 
occasion escape of gum. Bleeding, or the loss of sap by 
a w^ound, is only the same thiug in another kind of tree. 
Vines will bleed enough to weaken or injure them greatly 
if they are injudiciously cut at a wrong season. 

When trees die, apparently without rhyme or reason, 
it is generally because they have sent their roots down 
to an ungenial subsoil. Preventive measures are to shift 
the tree, if it be not too old, to make a trench round it 
and cut the roots which are running down too deep, and 
by encouraging the roots to keep near the surface of the 
ground by a little gentle forking and mulching. 

The insects which injure fruit trees and destroy the 
fruit, are almost too numerous to name — their name is 
legion. Those which attack the trunk of the tree are 
perhaps the most destructive and the most powerful. 

The stag-beetle clings to the tiunks of trees and lays 
its eggs, and the larva works its way into the wood and 
commits depredations in that form for three years. 



46 THE OKCHAED AND TETJIT GAEDEX. 



The goat-moth is yet more destructive in its eater- 
pillar form, eating into the wood of fruit trees for two 
or three years before its change. It is the Cossus ligniperda 
of naturalists ; the caterpillar, which is also called the 
auger-worm, is about four inches in length, dark red on 
the back, and flesh-coloured underneath, with a black 
head, smooth, shining skin, and a few short hairs about 
the body. Before taking the chrysalis shape it changes 
to yellow. The chrysalis is yellow with pointed spines, 
and it is generally deposited just inside the opening in 
the tree. In June or July the moth, which measures 
nearly three inches across the wings, and is of a sober 
hue, little distinguishable from the trunk, emerges from 
its hole. The female is said to lay 1,000 eggs in 
the bark of the tree, and the little caterpillars live at 
first in the bark, and afterwards take to their work of 
destruction of boring into the wood. "When the worm 
is detected, by its excrement, great mischief is already 
done, but it should be picked out if possible, or killed by 
thrusting a wire up the hole. Its name of goat-moth is 
derived from the strong smell of both the moth and 
worm. 

A plump beetle, resembling the rose-beetle, Gnorimiis 
nohilis, also eats into wood, and remains in the destruc- 
tive stage three years ; and the caterpillar of the Wood 
Leopard Moth, a black and white moth, also injures the 
wood. 

Against these injurious insects many birds — especially 
fly-catchers and the tits — wage incessant war, running 
up and carefully overlooking every inch of bark and 
picking out the larvse. 

The American or cotton blight has been mentioned 
in the chapter on choosing fruit trees. It h the JErioso?na 
mali of some entomologists, and is named by others E. 
lanicjera, or Apliis lanigera. It is very destructive to 
apple trees, and spreads and increases with amazing 
quickness : it also sometimes attacks other fruit trees. 
It is called the cotton blight from a white cottony secre- 
tion in which it envelopes itself, and from which it may 
be easily detected and destroyed. The insect itself is 



DISEASES AND I^s'SECTS. 



47 



roundish, shiny, and dark brown in colour, giving out a 
red dye when crushed. They attack the tree under- 
ground as well as above, and crowd about the trunk and 
branches. Scrape and scrub the branches thoroughly 
clean with soft soap and water, or ammoniacal liquor, 
bare the roots and use ammoniacal liquor to them also. 
Turpentine destroys them, but it must be sparingly 
appHed, as it injures foliage it happens to touch. 

The apple-bark beetle, JBostrichus dispar, is very in- 
jurious to the apple on the Continent, but is not very 
common in England. The female bores into the bark 
of the tree to deposit her eggs, with numerous and ex- 
tensive perforations. The alburnum is the seat of its 
depredations. 

Insects which live upon and destroy the leaves are 
about as destructive as those that eat into the wood, 
since they are more numerous, and destroy the vital 
energy of the tree by rendering the leaves which carry 
on its living functions useless for that purpose. 

The whole extensive family of scale insects. Coccus, 
rob the leaves and stems of their juices, and will kill 
what they attack, if they are left undisturbed. They 
stick close to leaves and stems like oblong scales ; the 
females are stationary, but the male insect has- wings, 
and is almost too minute to see with the unaided eye. 
I believe there is no remedy but hand-picking, washing, 
and scrubbing. In greenhouses they are most trouble- 
some pests. Turpentine brushed over the plant, or 
conveyed to it in fumes, destroys them ; but whatever 
plan is followed, the all-important thing is to attack them 
directly they appear, before they get ahead at all. 

Coccus adoniclum, or the mealyrbug, is soft-bodied, in 
shape a little like a wood-louse, covered with a white 
appearance, like meal, and giving out a crimson dye 
when crushed. Some persons get rid of them when 
they abound by the use of the washes given above for 
mildew. It attacks vines, pine apples, and any plants 
it can get at, being very destructive to myrtles, fuchsias, 
and such like. Coccus vitis, or the vine-scale, attacks 
vines indoors and out of doors, peaches, nectarines, and 



48 



THE OECHAED AND EEUIT aAEDEif. 



plums. They are oblong and convex in form, sticking 
so close down to the stem as to he detected onlj hj 
looking close at the plant, light-coloured while young, 
and brown as they get old and firm. Coccus Jiesperidum, 
which is such an enemy to the orange tree, is similar. 
They fix themselves on the under sides of the leaves and 
also along the stems. Coccus BromelicB, or pine-apple 
scale, infests that fruit. 

A kind of scale insect which infests the pear, Aspi- 
diotus ostraoeformis, is similar to the scale insect, and to 
be dislodged by the same treatment. 

Aphides are almost universal in their depredations, so 
few are the plants and trees they let alone. We all 
know how destructive they are among our roses, and in 
fact among all our choice, tender, succulent plants. As 
they take their colour very much from the food they 
feed on, it seems likely that there are really fewer 
varieties than naturalists name. Aphis pijrimali attack 
our apples and pears. A. Fersiccd devotes itself to the 
peach and nectarine. A. pruni infests plum trees, and 
is of a very pale green. A. cerasi is black : in damp 
soils it attacks the morello cherry, overrunning the 
under sides of the leaves. A. corily^ the nut aphis, is 
of a pale green. A. rihis^ the currant aphis, and A. 
ribis nigra, the black currant aphis, attack currants ; 
curiously enough, the first is darker than the last. 

To get rid of aphides, syringing with a decoction of 
elder-tops, tobacco-water, or soapsuds, on two or three 
following days, is good. Fumigating with tobacco 
smoke, where it can be managed, is also good. 

The aphis appears very early on the peach. "When 
wall fruit trees are infested, they should be taken down 
from the wall in the early spring and well scrubbed. 
If shreds are used, provide new ones. Giving plants 
and trees plenty of air and light, is the best preventive 
against this, the scale insect, and thrips ; as, on the con- 
trary, want of air, and too much heat, are sure to bring 
them . 

Thrips ochraceus is most disagreeable in its attacks 
on ripe plums, peaches, and nectarines, soiling and 



DISEASES ASB I^'SECTS. 



49 



spoiling tine fruit and making it fall. It is of an 
ochreous colour, and the body is hairy. A good remedy 
is Scotch snuff, spread by means of the machine used 
for dusting sulphur over vines. 

The mite family, Acari, are destructive in proportion 
to numerical force, and difficult to deal vrith from their 
extreme minuteness. A, tellarius, the red spider, is 
the worst of the lot, almost covering the under surfaces 
of the leaves, impeding respiration by spreading a 
minute web Avherever they go, and sucking the juices 
until the foliage loses colour, becomes dry, and is useless 
for its office of carrying on necessary circulation. The 
insect is so small that it can scarcely be detected 
by the unassisted eye, and it is one of the gardener's 
greatest pests. In form it rather resembles a spider ; 
sometimes it is yellowish, sometimes brown, and some- 
times of a dull red, and it has a dark spot on each side 
of the back. It is especially destructive in greenhouses 
and hothouses, which have been kept too hot and dry, 
but it also attacks (out of doors) beans, lime trees, 
apple, pear, and plum trees, and destroys cucumbers. 
Make a paint by beating up a quarter of a pound of 
soft soap in a gallon of warm water, mix in clay enough 
to make it like paint, and a little soot to deaden the 
colour. Stir in four good handfuls- of sulphur, and 
keep it stirred up while you paint with it the stems of 
fruit trees that are infested, and the walls behind 
such as are planted against walls. The beginning of 
April is the time to use it. The lime-wash used in 
greenhouses should have a good proportion of sulphur 
mixed with it. Svrino;ino; ^vith water is o:ood, as is also 
■fumigating with sulphur or turpentine ; but care must 
be taken that the sulphur does not take fire, which 
would destroy the plants : it begins to vapourize at 170"^, 
to which it may be raised, on plates over boiling water, 
or on hot-water pipes. Syringe afterwards. 

A, geniculatus is a glossy, brownish-red mite, which 
collects on the bark of plum and other trees. It may 
be effectually dislodged by a touch of turpentine, or by 
the use of gas ammoniacal liquor. A* liolosericeus, 

E 



50 



THE ORCHABD AKD PRUIT aARDElS". 



another Acarus, is distinguislied by its scarlet colour, 
and others infest various plants in our gardens. 

The Psylla, or Chermes, is something like a large 
aphis. P. pyri is often to be found on pear trees, and 
occaj=jionally on the apple. It appears in May, like 
a crimson aphis, shaded with black. The eggs, re- 
sembling the pollen of a flower, are laid in great 
numbers on the young leaves, flowers, and newly formed 
fruit. As the insects grow, they become darker, reddish 
on the breast, something like bugs in appearance, and 
travel downwards to the bearing wood and shoots of 
the year before, where they fix themselves in rows. 
Before the last change they fix themselves singly to 
leaves, and change to the winged insect, which is of 
a beautiful green, with red eyes and perfectly white 
wings. After a few days, the colour partly changes to 
orange, and the fly takes to the wing. The apple 
thermes, P. mali^ appears later. The eggs are first 
white, afterwards yellow, rather pointed at both ends, 
and often arranged in an exact pattern. It destroys 
the buds, and is diff'erent in appearance from the pear 
thermes, but the winged insect is equally beautiful. 
For all (one attacks the fig) on fruit trees, camelias, 
or roses, syringe with tobacco-water first, and after- 
wards with pure water. 

The saw-fly, Selandria Etliiops, or the shiny grub, 
so called on account of a dark slimy matter which 
covers the body, chiefly attacks pear trees, but is some- 
times found on the cherry. The grub is about half an 
inch long, dark, from the slimy black-green fluid en- 
veloping it, and larger near the head than at the other 
end. In October it changes to a brown cocoon, and in 
June or July becomes the winged insect, a shiny black 
fly, with yellowish tips to the legs, about the third of 
an inch across the extended wings. The eggs are de- 
posited on the upper surface of the leaves. 

Caterpillars are many of them most destructive to 
our fruit trees, occasionally making a clean gweep of 
all the leaves on a tree. The magpie moth, a yello^Yish- 
white flat moth, with a little orange, measuring about 



DISEASES ATO 11^ SECTS. 



51 



an inch and a half across the wings, and irregularly 
covered with black spots, produces the gooseberry 
caterpillar, Abraxas grossidariata, which sometimes 
leaves our gooseberry and currant trees without a leaf. 
The little looping caterpillar is yellowish-white, with an 
orange stripe down each side, and numerous black spots 
about it. The butterflies are plentiful in July and 
August. The female lays her eggs on a leaf, and in 
September the caterpillars are said to hatch out, ready 
to begin their depredations in the spring. They begin 
upon gooseberries and red currants, but after they have 
finished them they will feed on sloes, peaches, and 
almonds. The chrysalis is black, with orange rings 
round the pointed end. Hand-picking is the best cure. 
Dusting with the powder of white helebore is also very 
good. 

The caterpillar of Tinea qadella, or small ermine moth, 
appears in autumn, from eggs laid near the bloom-buds 
of the apple, pear, Eaonymus and hawthorn, in June and 
July ; they enclose the twigs with a web, and the 
following spring they attack the petals of the flower 
and the calyx. The caterpillar is a dull dark colour, 
with a black head, and the moth is white with black 
dots on the wings, minute and pretty. The pear-blister 
moth. Tinea clercJcella, is active, minute, glossy, and the 
wings are orange, spotted. In August the caterpillars 
raise dark brown blisters on the leaves of pear trees, 
and' occasionally attack the apple also. If the tree is 
small, and the mischief taken in time, the injured leaves 
can be picked off and burnt. "Washing with soapsuds 
at the end of May, when the moths are laying their 
eggs, is recommended. The triple-spotted curraut tinea. 
Tinea capitella, in its larva stage eats into the pith of 
the youno^ shoots of the currant in spring and the 
larva of Tinea corticella spoils apple trees by establishing 
itself under the bark. 

The worm belonging to the apricot moth, Pceclisca 
Angustiorana, is a small yellowish-green, wriggling little 
caterpillar that rolls itself up in the leaf of peach, 
nectarine, and apricot, and is very active at making its 

E 2 



52 



THE OECHAED AKD rETJIT GAEDE1S-. 



escape by dropping down by a thread. Througboufe 
May watch for rolled up leaves and destroy them as 
they appear. It changes into a brown, shining chrysalis, 
rolled in leaves, which should also be sought for and 
destroyed. The moth is a tiny brown thing, which 
deposits its eggs upon the branches. 

The ripening fruit upon our trees has as inveterate 
enemies as the trees themselves. 

Earwigs, ForJiculcB auricularis, eat into peaches, plums, 
and other luscious fruits in the night, and in the day 
hide away in dark recesses. The way to trap them is 
to reverse crab or lobster claws, small pots, or conical 
screws of paper, on the tops of sticks set in the ground 
near the places they frequent. The earwigs crawl into 
the dark recesses of the traps, and should be shaken out 
and killed every morning. They have wings, and use 
them at times, so that anything to destroy them placed 
round the stem of the tree is of very little use. 

Slugs and snails destroy choice fruit by eating it, and 
by crawling over it, leaving their slime, which by its 
glossy trail gives evidence where they have been. Hand- 
picking is good in the case of both, especially of snails, 
which can be hunted for and found in cracks in the 
walls, behind stones, and in such like out-of-the-way 
corners. Both snails and slugs are night-feeders, retiring 
and hiding by day. 

Lime and salt destroy slugs. In the evening water 
the earth round the tree with lime-water, then strew 
lime over the ground, and at the end of a week give 
a surface-dressing of salt, allowing a bushel to a rood 
of land. "Wall fruit trees infested with slugs may be 
syringed with lime-water. Cabbage leaves dipped in 
greasy water, or little piles of brewer's trains, will attract 
them, when they may be caught and killed. Continual 
stirring of the earth does good ; and they may be kept 
off wall fruit by strewing lime along the top and 
along the bottom of the wall, and renewing it once a 
week. 

The figure-of-eight moth, Episeona coerula-cepJiala, in 
its caterpillar form destroys the bloom of apples, pears, 



DISEASES AND LS-SECTS. 



53 



and cherries, besides eating the leaves of these and of 
peaches. The moth has bluish-grey upper wings, with 
a spot on each something like a figure of 8. It is very 
destructive, and should be destroyed whenever it is 
possible. 

The codlin moth, Carpocapsa 'pomonella^ is most 
destructive to apples, the female depositing her eggs 
singly, one in the eye of each young apple, pushing the 
ovipositor between the divisions of the calyx. Here the 
egg hatches, the little grub eats its way into the fruit, 
feeds first on the pulp, at last on the pips, the apple falls, 
the grub creeps out — in the night it is supposed — and 
crawls up the trunk of the tree, where, hidden away in 
a crack of the bark, it makes a smooth kind of nest and 
a little white silk case, and changes to the chrysalis. 
When apples are picked up (the ground is covered 
wherever these depredators exist), the hole must be 
looked for, and' if it is opened the insect has escaped, 
most likely efiectually, for when the apple is down, the 
grub soon makes good its retreat : all worm-eaten fruit 
that can be detected should be made safe earlier. 

The moth is, with closed wings, less than half an inch 
long, in shades of brown beautifully variegated. The 
grub is of a dirty-white colour, with a brown head, 
having six feet in front and two behind. The codlin is 
more subject to it than other apples, and it is difficult to 
get rid of it, but much may be done by collecting the 
apples, as they fall, and destroying the grubs, and by 
searching for and destroying the chrysalises in the 
crevices of tlie bark. Some naturalists call it Carpo- 
capsa pomonella, the name above given, others Tinea 
pomonella, FyraXis pomona, or Tortrix pomoniana. 

The Curculio^ a large family of weevils, are many of 
them most destructive to fruit trees. C. pyri resembles 
the apple weevil. The stem-boring weevil, C. alliarice, 
is iridescent black, and bores the shoots and grafts of 
poung fruit trees in June and July. C. JBacclius lays its 
?ggs in the fruit of the apple in June and July (7. 
^etuleti, the vine weevil, is a bright blue-black : it rolls 
ip the leaf of the vine as a nest for its eggs, and also 



54 THE OECHAED AOT PETJIT GAEDEIS". 

attacks the pear in June and July. C cupreits, the 
copper-coloured weevil, attacks the leaves and young 
shoots of plums and apricots in June and July. C, 
nucmi^ the nut weevil, demolishes our nuts : the best 
thing is to shake the bushes and collect and destroy the 
worm-eaten nuts that fall. G. oblongus is obloug, of a 
reddish-brown, and feeds on the young leaves of peaches, 
apricots, plums, pears, and apples in May. C. tenehricosus 
is a great enemy to the apricot. The crevices in old 
walls often harbour them, and had better be filled up 
with mortar or cement, and if the larvae are about the 
foot of the wall, a top-dressing of soot will do good. 
Infusion of tobacco or quassia does good. 

Curculio pomomtm, or Anthony mus 'pomorum^ the apple 
weevil, is, perhaps, the worst of all this destructive 
family. The mature insect is a little beetle about a 
quarter of an inch long, which hides itself in the bark 
of apple trees in winter. In the spring the female lays 
her eggs, one in each flower-bud ; these hatch into little 
white grubs, which destroy the flowers, and soon change 
into the beetles or weevils which feed on the leaves in 
summer, and are not often seen. 

The weevils should be sought for in their beetle form 
in winter, when they may be found hidden in the bark 
of trees or under stones. 

The winter moth, Cheimatobia hrimata, is most de- 
structive to the apple blossom, as well as to the leaves of 
many trees, and from living well through the winter, it 
is abundant and difficult to deal with. 

The lackey moth, Clisiocampa neustina, lays a great 
number of eggs in wide compact bands round the small 
branches of pear and other trees : the caterpillars, when 
they hatch, collect in large nests at the forks of small 
branches, where they may be sought for and destroyed, 
taking care that none drop by a thread and so escape. 
The Tortrix is a kind of moth with many varieties, very 
injurious to fruit. 

As valuable and industrious destroyers of mischievous 
insects, take care that no harm happens to either lady 
birds, toads, or frogs. 



TOOLS A:srD ST0EINa-E00:M3. 



55 



CHAPTER IX. 

TOOLS A2S-D STORI>'G-EOO:^S. 

The chief tools required exclusively in the fruit garden 
are good saws, well set ; one widely set, for cutting moist 
green wood, and good keen pruning-knives. In all 
things of this kind it is the most convenient, as well as 
the best economy, to buy things of first-rate quality, 
and to take good care of them. All steel articles should 
have frequent and plentiful oiliug with pure neat's-foot 
oil. They should also be kept in a dry place, and never 
left out in the wet or damp. 

Pruning-scissors are of all shapes and sizes, set at all 
kinds of angles, but those for fruit trees are generally 
set straight, on either long or short handles. 

A good pair of rose-scissors is necessary for cutting 
twigs and all young shoots, and a pair of long-handled 
cutting shears, capable of severing any branch up to the 
size of a man's wrist, kept sharp and in good order, is 
also necessary. All cutting and pruning for which one 
or other of these is not adapted, may very well fall to 
the lot of the pruning-knife or the saw. 

Spades, rakes, hoes, forks, picks, and all the other 
tools belonging to the ordinary kitchen garden, may of 
course come into use from time to time, among the fruit 
trees, too, but use them there with caution. It is not 
wise ever to dio: amonor the roots of fruit trees, or to 
plant crops so near to them that they can, by possibility, 
interfere with them. A little gentle, careful forking is 
all in the shape of digging that should approach the 
roots of trees, as the object in working the soil about 
them is to encourage the roots to spread near the surface 
of the ground, not on any account to induce them to 
strike downwards, nor to injure the tender rootlets. 



56 



THE OECHARD AKD FllIJIT GARDEIs". 



A wheelbarrow for conveying earth, manure, or other 
things, ladders and steps of different heights for reaching 
tall trees, either to cut them or to gather the fruit, and 
baskets, are indispensable. A budding-knife is convenient 
for its own work ; and there are many natty contrivances 
which may be had or done without at pleasure. 

Averruncators are small, powerful shears on long 
handles, for pruning high trees ; the price is about 205. 
each. There are also appropriate scissors sold for 
thinning grapes, and various other purposes. Hammers 
and a few tools of that kind are occasionally wanted. 
In the neighbourhood of London, trees are trained by 
means of shreds and cast-iron wall nails. In some parts 
of the country nails for fixing the trees to are fixtures 
on the wall, and the trees are attached to them by withies 
(willow twigs). In other parts, again, tarred shreds of 
cord are used. 

A good fruit-room is a necessary adjunct to every 
garden wherein fruit prospers, for most fruit has to be 
gathered before it is ripe, to prevent its being spoiled by 
falling, which it will do as soon as it is perfectly ripe. 
When the fruit has attained its full size, and will leave 
the tree easily by simply lifting, not breaking, the stalk, 
the ripening process, a formation of sugar and attendant 
exhalation of carbonic acid and water, goes on as well 
when it is stored as on the tree, for by that time the 
functions of the leaves, being no longer necessary, cease. 

The apple and pear room should be neither hot nor 
cold, uniform in temperature, and dry. Some persons 
recommend a situation below the ground, that the tem- 
perature may not fluctuate ; but it is important that it 
should be airy and dry, and therefore I think a good room 
above ground better. Let it have easily regulated, good 
ventilation, and a north aspect, with means for efi*ectually 
keeping out frost. An underground storing place, to be 
sufficiently dry, should be drained, floored with concrete, 
and the foundation of the walls laid in cement. This 
will not only keep the place dry, but it will eff^ectually 
keep out rats and mice — great pests among the fruit. 
The best temperature for a fruit-room is never above 60^ 



TOOLS AND STOEIXG-KOOMS 



57 



Hor below 40° ; the nearer the thermometer can be kept 
to this the better. 

If a fruit-room have to be built, and expense be no 
object, there is great advantage in making it with double 
' walls, leaving a space between the two, which keeps out 
i alike the cold of winter and the heat of summer. There 
should be a cavity of about three inches ; and there is no 
better non-conductor of heat than these hollow walls. 
I If the fruit-room be a simple, small building, constructed 
for the purpose thus with double walls, the same pains 
! must be taken with the roof, as regards the non-con- 
' ducting of heat ; it should be double, or there should be 
a ceiling, and the space above well and closely packed 
with trusses of straw. Greneraliy, however, a room in 
, the house, among the offices, or forming a portion of 
;Sorae range of buildings on the premises, will do better, 
and be more under control than a detached building 
made on purpose. 

For ventilation there is nothing better than a good 
full-sized window or windows, according to the size of 
the room, to reach up to the ceiling, and to open at the 
.top and at the bottom. When abundance of fruit is 
housed in the autumn, air must be let in and damp 
let out ; air let in near the top of the room will create 
' a brisk circulation, and the egress of a volume of air, 
by opening the window wide, is sometimes necessary to 
dispel damp. Fruit keeps best if kept pretty nearly in 
the dark, so that there should be dark blinds wherewith 
to darken the room, but means of admitting light, with- 
out cold, to examine, pick out, and arrange the fruit. In 
severe frost the windows must be matted up to keep 
it out. 

i A fruit-room may generally be kept to a temperature 
1 which will preserve fruit for family use throughout the 
^winter. 

I A framework like a bottle rack, with the tiers very 
[close together, is good for apples, and, with some reser- 
i vation,.for pears too. The cross shelves on which to lay 
i out the fruit may be of the common double laths, which 
are bought by the bundle; and they need not of necessity 



58 



THE ORCHABD A.lsB PETJIT GAEDEIS". 



be fixed, but may be ranged on the frame, nearer or 
farther apart, according to the size of the fruit to lie on 
them, at the time it is laid out. Frames like this may 
partly surround the room : the depth from back to front 
may be from 1^ to 2 feet, that the back may be reached 
without difficulty, and the tiers 6 or 9 inches apart, to 
admit the hand above the fruit. These frames should 
be looked over pretty often, and the bad or specked 
fruit picked out. All kinds should be allov^^ed to get 
dry before they are stored. 

Apples of all varieties keep capitally in a fruit-room. 
They should be arranged each kind by itself, and the 
earliest the most come-at-able. Many kinds of pears 
keep well in the same way ; or they may, when they are 
dry, be arranged in new or thoroughly clean garden pots, 
or unglazed pans, covered each with a pan or piece of 
slate, and stored where frost cannot get to them. Of 
course the fruit will ripen the sooner if the room be 
warm, and some for earliest use may he hastened by lay- 
ing them out in the sun. 

Mr. Elvers, than whom we can scarcely have a better 
judge, recommends keeping pears for the winter in a 
greenhouse, but I have tried it without a good result. 

My pears," he writes, have been laid out on the 
front bench of a lean-to greenhouse, the stage at the 
back being occupied by camelias. The glass over 
the pears was shaded until the end of JN'ovember, the 
house ventilated, and the camelias watered as if the 
pears were not there. In severe frost the temperature 
was kept just above freezing. The autumn pears ripened 
slowly, and were excellent in flavour, the late pears kept 
until April, but then shrivelled; as the sun gained power 
the house became too hot and dry. I should therefore 
recommend winter pears to be stored in covered pots or 
jars early in December, and kept in the greenhouse." 

Choice pears may be wrapped each one in paper, and 
ranged one layer deep in shallow boxes or drawers. Thus 
packed, one box at a time can be removed into a warmer 
room, to ripen thoroughly. 

Quinces and medlars will keep quite as well as applea 



TOOLS AISTD STOEING-EOOMS. 



59 



with no more care. ]N"uts should be kept in a rather 
damper place. 

The good keeping of fruit greatly depends on the care 
with which it is gathered, as the slightest bruise will 
spoil the keeping. Many amateur fruit-growers gather 
their own fruit, and unless the gardener be unusually 
careful and dexterous, there is scarcely a job in the whole 
garden on which a gentleman can better bestow his own 
personal work and attention. 

The fruit should, one by one, be quietly removed 
from the tree and gently laid, not thrown, into the 
basket. Apples and pears should never, on any account, 
be poured from one basket to another, or on to the 
floor, but gently removed, if necessary, by hand. It is 
advisable not only to pick the fruit with the greatest 
care and gentleness, but to avoid shifting it from basket 
to basket. Lay it softly in the first basket, in that 
convey it to where it is to be spread out to dry, and 
with equal care lay out all that are sound and good, and 
pick out for immediate use (for self or friends or pig, 
according to degree of damage) all that are touched by 
an insect, even in a slight degree, and all that have 
a suspicion of a bruise. The way often followed of 
throwing the apples or other fruit into a basket as they 
are gathered, and pouring them from one basket to 
another, or upon the ground, cannot fail to lead to plenty 
of decayed fruit and proportionate disappointment. 

rruit-rooms are sometimes w^armed artificially with 
flues, or a stove not in the room itself, but in an 
adjoining cupboard ; but a little management will, almost 
for certain, keep out frost and preserve fruit through 
our winters. 

Choice fruit for the London markets is packed in 
small boxes or baskets, each fruit separately wrapped in 
paper or wool, according to w^hat it is, and the inter- 
stices filled up with bits of paper rolled up, or something 
similarly yielding, yet firm enough to keep the fruit 
from shifting. I have known apples and pears keep 
very well in a large press or cupboard, but a room better 
supplied with air is preferable. Apples may also be 



60 



THE OECHAED A^fD EBTJIT aABDEIT. 



stored in hampers, with straw ranged between the 
layers, and kept in a cellar, but this precludes, or 
renders very troublesome, the necessary overlooking 
which economy demands. 



CHAPTEE X. 

THE PEAE TEEE AJSD ITS PEODrCE. 

Peehaps there is no fruit more popular in England 
than the pear, Fyncs communis, and no country in which 
it is finer than it is in ours ; for althou_Q;h many of our 
splendid sorts are from France and Belgium, where 
scientific culture brings them to great size and per- 
fection, none are so fine in flavour as those ripened, 
under favourable circumstances, by our milder sun. 
Even the pear-famed Channel Islands must; yield the 
palm to England in that one point of flavour "in the 
pears. 

The best soil for pear trees is a sound loam, rather 
clayey than sandy. In Jersey, where pears do so well, 
light, sandy soil is very general, but it is where the 
heavier soil prevails that the pears do really well, and 
prosper year after year. Light, poor land, and cold, 
wet clay are equally bad, and a dry subsoil is necessary 
for success. Pears thrive pretty well in any ordinary 
soil, so it be in good heart ; and manuring is not neces- 
sary with such, and must always be bestowed with great 
caution. In orchards for the cultivation of trees of 
large size, the soil should be quite two feet deep, but 
for trees of a more dwarfed habit a foot and a half is 
sufficient. In sandy loam, or any soil which is too dry 
for them, the fruit is apt to crack. 

Grafting and budding are the usual modes of propaga- 
tion. The free stock, or wild seedling, is calculated for 
growing large trees for orchards, and the quince stock 
is best for garden culture, it being of a moderate, com- 
pact habit of growth. The advantage of compactly 
grown trees, whether as bushes, pyramids, espaliers, or 



THE PEAE TEEE AND ITS PEODUCE. 



61 



any other kind of training, is so verj great, as regards 
easy culture, safety to the fruit, and beauty, that it 
seems almost a pity tall trees should be planted in 
gardens, to grow beyond all management, give great 
trouble in pruning, gathering, &e., and then to have 
half the fruit sacrificed by being blown down from its 
dangerous elevation. The great thing in favour of large 
trees is the abundant crops they will produce, if they 
are kept well thinned out ; but the small trees, scientifi- 
cally pruned, will produce abundant crops too, in propor- 
tion to the ground occupied and sliaded, and of a much 
finer quality. Better have one basket of really superior 
pears, than two or three which are only second-rate. 
Budding is sometimes, but not often, practised. 

Young trees are raised from seed in a kind of whole- 
sale way, by burying the decaying fruit, until February, 
then mixing them up with a quantity of sand to separate 
the seed and pulp. All is then sown, and the young 
seedlings are left to themselves for a length of time. 
To raise seedlings with more care, the plumpest seeds — 
those which are plump on both sides, not flat on one 
side, one from each of the finest pears on the finest 
trees, fine flavoured and genially ripened — should be 
chosen, and sown not more than six in each pot. Label 
them and put them aside in a safe place, to come up 
in the spring, giving just a little water now and then. 
Some recommend keeping the seed until February, and 
sowing it then. It must be kept safe from mice, which 
are very fond of it, especially when it is germinating. 

In June the young plants may be potted singly for 
another year, for the sake of safety while so small, or 
planted out in a safe border. Those which seem most 
promising may be hastened to show their quality by 
grafting from the young tree on a bearing old tree, or 
on a quince stock, when it is reckoned they bear in 
about half the time they would take if left to them- 
selves. 

In spring, the bearing pear trees want little but 
watching, which the amateur pear-grower, if he be fond 
of his trees, is pretty sure to give them in liberal supply. 



62 



THE ORCHABD AJfD FEIJIT GAEDEN. 



They stould be bow, as left by good pruning of the 
year before, compact, shorn of all redundant and 
mischievous growth, and well supplied with fruit-spurs. 
No cutting back must be resorted to until the fruit is 
set and swelling. At this stage all that the watchful 
cultivator can do is to ward off destruction from the 
blossom and the tender fruit, by giving safe protection, 
if possible, from frost and storms, and hunting and 
destroying weevils and chrysalises hidden away in the 
bark or elsewhere. The earliest process to be resorted 
to in the way of pruning, is to rub off the buds which 
are likely to produce superabundant and crowded 
shoots. With wall trees, all buds that are likely to 
produce shoots growing outwards are to be rubbed off. 
This may be done in May. As soon as the buds swell, 
the leaf-buds and the flower-buds may be distinguished, 
not only by their situation, but from the leaf-buds being 
longer made and less plump than the bloom-buds. In 
June, begin pinching back all the little side-shoots. 
"When they have made six or eight leaves, pinch them 
back to four leaves, and if the spurs put out young 
shoots again, pinch them back to one leaf only, always 
remembering to leave the leading side and top shoots 
to grow and draw up the sap until the end of summer, 
as recommended in the chapter on pruning. Continue 
this pinching back of small shoots throughout the 
summer, and cut back the leading shoots, until now left 
growing, about the end of August. 

Pear trees intended to grow up into tall standards 
should have a straight, healthy stem, dividing at the 
top into four well-placed shoots of about equal strength, 
to form afterwards the leading branches ; and the stem 
should be kept upright with a good firm stake, that it 
may grow into a straight trunk. In after years, as the 
head grows large, the branches must be thinned out, so 
that no one can interfere with another. 

For wall or espalier training, little trees should have 
one stem, with side branches on two sides, and the front 
and back shoots should be cleanly pruned away. One 
shoot on each side will do : two on each side are better, ^ 



THE PEAK TREE AND ITS PRODUCE. 



63 



j lind, for the sake of beauty and uniformity, they should 
I jigree one side with the other. The buds which tend 
jpackwards, or which are likely to grow out in front, 
jlihould be rubbed off, unless much needed where they 
Wow, in which case the shoots may be trained in. 
i The spurs on a pear tree should be short and far 
ipart. Long spurs, crowded together, will never pro- 
iuce fine fruit. "Where they are too crowded cut out, 
jind where they are too long shorten them ; but there 
will be little occasion for this with trees under careful 
([culture. 

I There is another summer work for the pear-grower : 
ibesides pruning back the young shoots, he must thin 
lout the pears with a continually watchful eye. Xature 
Ijdoes the first pear-thinning, when the young pears 
iwhich fail to shape and swell shrivel and drop off by 
hundreds. These, when they fall off, generally, unless 
ifrost or hail have done a sweeping work of destruction, 
jieave quite as many plump, swelling little nobs of pears 
!as is good for the tree, and plenty of work in thinning 
jbesides. 

j Avoid beginning to thin the pears too early ; rather 
''wait to see what the spring rains and stormy weather 
'imay accomplish in that way; but when the pears swell 
Sso as to approach, or in the slightest degree threaten 
jjto crowd each other, thin out liberally. The late 
'■pears may have more liberal thinning out than those 

which ripen in the autumn, because the last have to 

endure the winds and storms of autumn at a time 
• when approaching maturity makes them less firm upon 

the tree, so that they will to a great extent thin them- 
i selves, and that, if it comes after a very plentiful, arti- 
1 ficial thinning, may leave the trees quite too thin of fruit 
} for the time of gathering. In July or August, accord- 
I'lJg to the forwardness of the season, thin Chaumontels 
I to the extent of leaving no more than two to each bunch ; 
j Louise Bonne, and other comparatively early kinds, 

need n-ot be tliinned nearly so much. In thinning, as 
I in all other operations connected with fruit culture, 
j experience and watchful care and observation must 



64 THE OECHAED AND FEUIT GAEDEIS". 

guide the hand. The eye must aid the hand, for every 
pear that is taken away before the worm makes its 
escape, will save great loss in years to come. 

The way of gathering pears and other fruit has been 
already spoken of. The time of gathering varies with 
each particular sort, and varies also to some extent 
in different localities. In warm, sheltered spots, fruit 
ripens early; and the difference between the West 
Country or the Channel Islands, and the middle of 
England, or even the neighbourhood of London, is as 
much as a month ; and the north of Scotland ripens 
fruit with even a greater difference still. 

When the pears begin to fall, though it may be 
but in small numbers, we must watch for the right 
time to gather them. The rule to follow is to gather 
them when by just raising the pear it will leave the 
tree readily, without any effort to break the stalk : if 
any pull is required, the time for gathering has not 
arrived, and the fruit so gathered would shrivel instead 
of ripen. The time for gathering the few kinds par- 
ticularized as fit for moderate gardens is given, but it 
may vary with localities and seasons ; the rule of taking 
the pears when they will readily leave the tree may 
always apply. 

When the pears are gathered, they must be so well 
stored that the earlier sorts will keep good and fit for 
use throughout their season, and the late kinds keep up 
a good supply throughout the winter and spring months. 
A cool, dry room, such a fruit-room as was described in 
the last chapter, is good for preserving the main stock 
from decay. Several of our finest kinds, however, re- 
quire more warmth to finish the ripening, and give them 
the full, luscious, delicious flavour they should have. 
The coolish room is necessary to keep the supply con- 
tinuous for a length of time, and more warmth is 
wanted at last to finish the ripening. Just to finish off 
the pears, about a week, say, before they are wanted, 
bring them into a temperature of 55° to 60° : they may 
be laid in a greenhouse w^ith that temperature, or kept 
until used in the dining or common sitting-room. ^ 



THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN PEAE SUPPLY. 65 



f CHAPTEE XI. 

j THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN PEAR SUPPLY. 

!j In the choice of kinds, most private growers are 
I anxious to keep up a supply for family use throughout 
J' the season, having one or more summer sorts, according 
J to the ground at command ; a few first-class varieties 
' of autumn-ripening pears, generally so much finer in 
J flavour; and some to come in from the middle of winter 
jj to the end of spring, often better in all points than 
I any, provided really good and productive trees can be 
obtained. 

j! The Jargonelle is perhaps the best early pear for a 
jj garden which is small, or of only moderate dimensions, 
I as it is a plentiful bearer, will keep better than most 

early pears, and is of a good size, juicy, melting, and 
u finer in flavour than any equally early. It will flourish 
j ill almost any garden, and on a wall it will produce as 
■ far north as pears will grow. It is said to do best on 

the pear stock, and to be gritty at the core if grown 
^ on the quince, and it makes fine, large, well-grown 

trees, but Mr. Elvers recommends it for bush culture 

also. 

i One fine, productive Jargonelle pear tree gives no bad 
supply for a family, and there is less objection to its 
growing tall than in the case of kinds which have to 
bear autumn wind-storms, for it ripens by the middle 
of August, and is done with by about the end. It is 
the Grosse ciiisse Madame of French growers. The 
fruit is greenish-yellow, with sometimes a tinge of 
brownish-red on the sunny side, rather pyramidal, long 
aud large, with an open eye, long segments of calyx, 
and a longish stalk, obliquely inserted. If some are 
gathered before they are ripe, and stored in a cool 
fruit-room, they will ripen more gradually and keep 
iouger than those left to ripen on the tree. 



66 THE ORCHAED AKD FEUIT GAEDEI?-. 



The Windsor is a very old sort, and popular from 
beiDg early, a pretty good, often an abundant bearer, 
juicy and sweet. The tree is not hardy, being liable to 
canker if it be grown on a gravelly or cold, clayey soil. 
Some trees have the habit of bearing a great lot of 
poor, small fruit, such as we see in quantities sold cheap 
enough in the streets of London in summer. It is a 
pretty-looking pear, being yellow, with bright red on 
one side, and it ripens the end of August. In size it 
varies very much, but sometimes it is very good in that 
point. The eye is small, prominently placed, the stalk 
short, the flesh white, and the juice sweet, with a little 
astringent flavour. 

William's Bouchretien is large and handsome, 
similar to the Windsor in taste, but with a musky 
flavour. It is ripe about the same time, and is very 
productive. 

The Summer Bergamot is a nice green pear, inclining 
to russet, of small size, juicy, sweet, and well flavoured, 
and an abundant bearer. It is round, rather flattened 
at both ends, with a small closed eye in a very shallow 
basin ; the stalk is short and thick, and is also inserted 
in a small cavity. It is ripe in September, and does 
well either on the pear or on the quince stock. 

The Cassolette, Lechefrion, or Muscativerd, is a most 
delicious middle-sized, roundish, yellowish-green pear, 
with red on the sunny vside. It ripens in August and 
September-; the flesh is crisp and tender, with sugary, 
musky-perfumed juice. It has an open eye in a slightly 
plaited basin, and a thick, short stalk, set in a small 
hollow. 

The Green Chisel is a nice little round, green 
pear, ripening earlv in August. It has a large eye and 
a short stalk, straightly inserted without any hollow. 
The tree has a short, erect growth ; it bears abundantly, 
and the fruit is in clusters. These are, perhaps, the 
best of our summer pears. If fewer kinds are wanted, 
the Green Chisel may be chosen as the earliest, but the 
Lecliefrion and Jargonelle are the best kinds, especially 
as regards flavour. 



THE SITMMEE AND AUTUMN PEAE SUPPLY. 67 



j The Madeleine, or Citron des Calmes, is a very early 
j but a very poor pear ; it ripens in July, and bears 
! abundantly. Saint Jean is a very early little pear, said 
' to ripen at Midsummer, and doing so in reality not 
I much later. It, too, is little worth the attention of the 
: private grower ; but those who grow for the market are 
often glad of abundant bearers of early sorts. Cailot 
ji Eosat is another early pear which has the merit of 
|! being a most abundant bearer : the crop is immense, 
, but the pear not very fine in flavour, although tolerably 
I sweet and juicy. 

^ As we get on to September and October, fine-flavoured 
: pears become much more plentiful. 

;i Beurre d'Amaulis is a nice juicy pear, and a good 
bearer. The fruit is yellowish-green, with russet 
i markings, quite above the middle size, rather thick 
; made, with an open eye in a shallow basin, and rather a 
short stalk set not quite straight in a very small cavity. 
It must be eaten when it is ready, or it loses its flavour ; 
but it is, notwithstanding, a useful tree to have, as its 
i pretty plentiful crop comes in conveniently after the 
*' very early kinds. It ripens in September. 
[ Graciali, Summer Bon Cretien, or Boncretien d'Ete, 
i ripens late in September, and is one of the earliest 
really fine-flavoured pears we have. It is a round, 
yellow-green pear, with a rasset tinge, above the middle 
size, and full of delicious, sub-acid, highly-flavoured 
juice. The eye is small and prominent, in an evenly 
formed shallow basin. The stalk is short, and set in a 
very slight cavity. It will do on pear or quince stocks ; 
and as it ripens, and so becomes liable to fall by the 
I time of the rough winds, when they come early, it is 
j best to keep it to a dwarf habit of growth. It is an 
; old variety, and is apt to be delicate in unfavourable 
localities. 

The Swan's Egg, that old-fashioned, old English pear, 
is worth, cultivating from its nice flavour and productive- 
ness, in spite of its very small size. It is a small round 
pear, greenish-yellow when ripe, with russet specks, 
^and dull brown on the sunny side sometimes, and the 

F 2 



68 



THE OECHABD AKD FRUIT aAEDEN. 



tree bears regularly and abundantly, in such thick 
clusters, that it is called " fill basket " in some parts. 
It is a delicious-flavoured, sweet, juicy little pear, its 
thick, leathery skin being its greatest drawback. It 
ripens in October, will keep several weeks, and the 
tree has a tall, upright growth. The eye of the 
fruit is small, with a short calyx, prominently 
placed, and surrounded by a few wrinkled plaits ; 
the stalk is of medium length, slender, and placed 
in a small cavity. 

The Calebasse is a large pear, bossy, and almost 
equally thick all the way up. It is greyish-yellow, 
more yellow on the sunny side, and partly covered with 
a thin orange-grey russet. It is very sweet and juicy, 
but a little gritty. It ripens early in October, and 
will keep a fortnight or three weeks. It is often bent 
in the middle, the stalk is rather long, obliquely in- 
serted under one or two knobs, and the eye is open^ 
with a very short, acute calyx. 

The Bishop's Thumb is similar in outline and colour, 
but smaller, and very fine in flavour, having abundance 
of rich, sweet juice. It ripens the end of October, and 
is a distinct and excellent pear. 

The Brown Beurre is an old-fashioned, excellent 
English pear, large, long, tapering to the stalk, russety 
brown, with a little bright brown or red on the sunny 
side. It is juicy, melting, rich and excellent in flavour, 
is ripe in October, and will keep good for a few w^eeks. 
It is called Eed Beurre, Golden Beurre, Beurre Grris, 
and many other names, no doubt from the colour 
varying much on difi*erent stocks and in different soils 
and situations. It is also called Beurre d'Anjou, 
Beurre d'Ambleuse, Beurre d'Amboise, and other names 
from places, denoting its extended popularity. The eye 
is small, in a shallow basin, the stalk of medium length, 
stout, and thickening obliquely into the fruit. The 
'Brown Beurre does well on the pear or quince, but it 
is tender and subject to canker. It must have a sound, 
dry soil ; it does best against a wall ; and if the locality 
is not warm and sheltered, a south or south-east aspect, 



THE SUMMER AIS'D AUTUMIT PEAE STIPPLT. 69 

'[ suits it best. When it does well it is a very handsome, 
i excellent pear. 

j The Beurre de Capiaumont is of middle size, pear- 
I shaped, tapering to the stalk, good-flavoured, and clear 
cinnamon in colour, which is yellow in shade, but turns 
' ruddy in sunshine. It is ripe the middle of October, 
! and will keep several weeks. The eye is not sunk, and 
I the stalk is short, inserted without any cavity. It 
Ij succeeds well on the quince stock, and makes good open 
!; dwarf trees. 

j The Seckle is of American origin. It is a small, dull 
' brown, or brownish-green pear, with a bright red cheek, 
j and a delicious and peculiar flavour, unlike other pears, 
'j It ripens before the end of October, and it will not 
jl keep many days. It has a small open eye, with a 
ii short calyx, prominently placed, and the stalk is short, 
and obliquely fixed in a sm^all cavity. This capital 
little pear is among the best of the American varieties ; 
it is very hardy, ripens its fruit with certainty, and 
bears it in clusters at the ends of the branches. 

Marie Louise is another very good October pear, 
which often comes forward gradually, and remains in 
use several weeks. It is a large, handsome-shaped 
pear, of a rich yellow colour, whei; ripe, and bright red 
on the sunny side if ripened in sunshine. The eye is 
open, in a rather knobby basin, and the stalk is long, 
and obliquely inserted in a small, uneven cavity. It is a 
juicy, nice- flavoured pear, bears well as a standard, and 
will do on a north wall. 

Louise Bonne is a large, pyramidal, very handsome, 
very hardy, and very excellent pear ; it is so ready 
to grow in almost any locality, so fine in flavour, 
and so handsome to look at, that no garden should 
be without it. It is smooth and glossy, turning from 
a fine green, with dull red on one side, to yellow 
and crimson as it ripens. The eye is small, with a short 
closed calyx in a rather deep round basin, and the stalk 
is of medium length, set on obliquely, and often sur- 
rounded with a delicate russet spot. It ripens late in 
October, and keeps for many weeks. It succeeds on 



70 



THE OECHAED AIS"!) FEUIT GAEDE^. 



pear or quince stock, but in unfavourable localities it 
does much best on the quince. The tree has a healthy, 
vigorous growth on the quince, the wood is of greenish- 
brown, and the young shoots look powdered in their 
earlj stage : it is only in warm, light, loamy soils that it 
does well on the pear. It is cultivated with success 
in Scotland. Louise Bonne d'Avranche is the same 
pear. 

The Duchesse d'Angouleme, often shortened into the 
Duchesse pear, is a fine, large, roundish, oblong pear, 
with an uneven, bossy surface, dull yellow, with broad 
russet patches w^hen ripe, very juicy and high-flavoured, 
and with an agreeable perfume. The eye is deeply sunk 
in an irregular basin, and it has a stalk of medium 
length, which is rather thick, and inserted in an irregular 
cavity. It is a good bearer, and does well on pear or 
quince stock. It is particularly well adapted to the 
quince stock, and, when grafted on it, it bears early and 
with certainty. In size and appearance it is the fiuest 
of the autumn pears, and reaches a size and weight 
unusual in eating pears. The original tree is said to 
have been found wild in the forest of Armaille, near 
Angers, about the year 1815. 

The JSTapoleon is a fine, large, smooth-skinned pear, 
which is bright green until it is ripe, and then pale 
green, abundantly juicy and very nice m flavour. The 
eye is small and a little depressed, and the stalk short 
and thick, sometimes put on straight, and sometimes 
inserted diagonally under a curved boss. It ripens in 
November, and remains good many days. It is a 
plentiful bearer on an east or west wall, and grafted on 
the quince it makes a good open dwarf or standard. It 
also does on the pear stock. 

The autumn pears must all be used within a very few 
weeks after they ripen. Some must be eaten up in 
a few days, or they become poor in flavour, and spoil ; 
others may be in use for three weeks or a month, but it 
is only a question of a very few weeks ; none are to be 
depended on for a winter supply, when various circum- 
stances, in addition to their high price in the market, 



THE SUMMER AND AUTTJMK PEAE SUPPLY. 71 

! renders a store of fruit in the fruit-room doubly valuable. 
J It is best, therefore, in planting the garden with fruit 
I trees, to calculate the pear-eating capabilities of the 
: family, and to provide about as many autumn-ripening 
, pears as can be consumed without waste from the time 
I the earliest autumn pears ripen, until as near Christmas 
I as the later ones can be prevailed on, by a cool fruit-room 
I and care, to keep good. If tolerably successful, the 
\\ twelve sorts I have named would keep a very large 
family abundantly supplied as long as they last; and if 
i| the consumption be very great, there may be duplicates 
of Louise Bonne, and some others of the best kinds. 
If there be not space at command for so many autumn 
pears, without interfering with those which are 
necessary to provide a winter stock, Louise Bonne, 
Bishop's Thumb, Duchesse, Marie Louise, Graciali, and 
Swan's Egg, will form a good half-dozen, introducing a 
Brown Beurre if there be a warm, sheltered spot at 
liberty for it, and Beurre d'Amaulis, on account of its 
being a good go-between. 

Doyenne Blanc, St. Michel, or Doyenne d'Or, is a 
most delicious October pear, which may be added with 
advantage to any collection. The fruit is round, bright 
yellow, with crimson on the sunny side, and ciunamon- 
russet markings. It is very sweet, mellow and juicy; 
the eye is small, with a closed calyx, in a shallow basin, 
and the stalk is also placed in a small cavity. It ripens 
the end of September, and keeps several weeks. It is 
capital for grafting on the quince stock, but will also do 
on the pear. It is much known as the "White Beurre. 

The time of gathering varies greatly, according to the 
weather and situation. Violent stormy weather, and an 
early break-up of the season, may often make it advisa- 
ble to try the fruit with a view to forestalling the usual 
date of gathering, but we must on no account ever 
gather any which will not leave the tree readily. 

Beurre d'Amaulis will be ready to gather by the middle 
of September. Graciali comes next, and will have to be 
stored a week or ten days later. The Calebasse has to 
be gathered in October, but will keep into November. 



72 



THE OECHAED AND FEUIT GAEDEIS". 



The Swan's Eggs require to be gathered in October, but 
in favourable seasons thej will keep until nearly 
Christmas : aud the Bishop's Thumb will do the same. 
The Brown Beurre, too, keeps several weeks : it requires 
o:athering in October. Beurre de Capiaumont the same. 
The Seckle must be eaten at once, as it ripens. Marie 
Louise comes forward more gradually, and although it 
may be gathered early in October, some trees even 
earlier, the supply will last a good while, if stored with 
care. Louise Bonne must be gathered in October, but, 
if stored with care, some will last until nearly Christmas. 
The store of Duchesse d'Angouleme, gathered in Octo- 
ber, will come forward by degrees, hnt they must be 
often looked over, and eaten to a day, as they ripen, or 
these fine and popular pears will have very little good- 
ness. Napoleon, gathered and stored in October, will 
keep until Christmas. From the first week in October 
to the middle of the month, or a very few days later, is 
the time for gathering and storing almost all pears which 
Lave not been previously made safe, including the keep- 
ing sorts, and only a few of the latest may be allowed to 
hang on the trees later than that. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

KEEPIlS-a PEAES. 

The transition from the pears which must be eaten a 
few days after they are gathered, to those of a more 
lasting kind, which may be in use for several weeks, or 
even for months, if put by with care, is so very gradual, 
that a division of them must not be considered impera- 
tive ; as, for instance, some w^hich I named in the last 
chapter will sometimes, if ripened under favourable 
circumstances, and well stored, keep until Christmas ; 
and by the same rule Crassane may, and Beurre Clair- 
geau must often, be finished off in November, especially 
if the summer have given too much wet or too little 
warmth for favourable ripening. 



KEEPING PEAES. 



73 



Our winter pears are very dependent on tbe kind of 
season we get for their keeping properties and fine 
flavour. 'No artificial or natural warmth can compensate 
for the absence of abundance of genial sunshine ; exces- 
sive heat ripens the fruit without properly developing 
its size or flavour ; and an extremely dry, extremely wet 
season, or one in which the warmth and the wet come 
unseasonably, although there may be a good proportion 
of both, are all bad for the fruit. Our fruit crops must, 
both in goodness and quantity, depend greatly on 
seasons, and we can only watch and ameliorate the dis- 
advantages of bad seasons, as far as ice can, by careful 
culture. 

Although first-class winter or keeping pears are not 
numerous, some few make up in goodness what they 
want in number. The very few which come into use 
from February onward far into the spriug, must in no 
case be overlooked in planting the fruit garden. These 
come in when good fruit is very scarce, when it will 
command almost any price in London and other 
markets, and when pears of good quality are indeed a 
dainty dish to set before our friends. Besides these, we 
ought to have an abundant supply of fine-flavoured, 
good pears, to carry us over Christmas and the new 
year — a time when abundance of good fare is especially 
wanted. 

Zephirine Gregoire is a round, middle-sized pear, 
coming into use from November to February. It is 
smooth on the surface, a little bossy at the stalk, with a 
shining skin of a pale waxen yellow colour, inclining to 
orange on the sunny side ; juicy, sweet, and rich in 
flavour, and with a delicate aroma something like that 
imparted by elder-flowers. On a heavy soil the skin is 
greener and russety. The eye is very small, sometimes 
on the surface, sometimes in a shallow basin ; and the 
stalk is of medium length, thick, and set on without any 
cavity. It is a hardy tree, a good bearer, and very fit for 
pyramid or other training. 

Crassane is a delicious pear, ripening in November, 
and going on until Christmas. It is a middle-sized, 



74 



THE OECHAED ATS^D FETIIT QAEDE^f. 



pear-shaped, short, thick, yellowish pear, thinly covered 
with reticulated grey russet ; juicy, sweety and peculiarly 
delicious in flavour. The eye is small, in a deep, narrow 
"basin, and the stalk is long and slender, set in an open, 
shallow cavity. It does on pear or quince ; it is said, 
I think without foundation, to do best on the pear ; it is 
an excellent bearer, quite one of the best pears of its 
season, and it produces well on an east or south-east 
wall. To encourage this and other kinds to keep longer, 
it is a good plan to make three gatherings: the first a 
fortnight before the fruit is ripe, the next a week before, 
and the last when it is ripe. The gathering of ripe 
fruit will come in first, and the second and first gather- 
ings will follow in succession. This progressive way of 
bringing the fruit forward is especially advisable after a 
hot summer. 

There is a variegated-foliaged Crassane, which is a very 
ornamental tree. It is a variety of the Crassane ; the 
fruit is similar, and the leaves are margined with pale 
yellow when they first come out, turning to white as 
they reach maturity. The tree has a slenderer growth, 
it is more tender than Crassane, and it will bear only 
against a wall, and with a warm aspect. 

The Beurre Clairgeau is a splendid pear to look at ; 
one which for size and beauty any cultivator may like 
to rear ; but it hardly comes up to its appearance in 
goodness, being rather coarse. It is, however, sweet and 
juicy, piquant, and with an agreeable aroma. It is a 
very large pear-shaped pear, curving round at the stalk, 
smooth and shining, bright yellow, with large russety 
specks and patches, especially round the stalk, and glow- 
ing red on the sunny side — certainly a most taking pear. 
The eye is small and open, set in a shallow basin ; the 
stalk rather short, stout, and fleshy. The pear ripens in 
October, and keeps good throughout November. The 
tree is not a rampant grower, on which account, as well 
as the large size of its fruit, it is well adapted for dwarf 
culture. It is good for pyramid or bush culture. 

The Winter Nelis is a pear which no garden should be 
without. It is a medium-sized pear, wide in the centre, ^ 



KEEPIira PEAES. 75 

1 and growing smaller at both end?,"of a dull green colour, 
I with brownish-grey russet on the sunny side, but greenish- 
I yellow when it ripens, and paler yellow when ripened on 
i a wall. The eye is open, and slightly sunk in a narrow 
basin, and the stalk is rather long, set in a narrow and 
' ' rather deep cavity. It is a mellow, delicious, sweet, 
juicy pear, with a rich, fine flavour. It is ripe in Decem- 
j bar, and is in use until the end of January or February. 
Ij Other names are Nelis d'Hiver, Bonne de Malioes, La 
bonne Malinaise, Colmar Nelis, Etonneau, Fondante de 
Malines, and Malinaise Cuvelier. It is a tree of pecu- 
liarly slender, elegant growth, requiring support for the 
branches w^hen the crop is full, and the bark is very 
\ smooth and clean in appearance. It grows well as a 
f: standard, but in localities which are not very favour- 
j able of course the fruit is larger if the tree can have a 
wall. It is hardy, a moderate grower, and a good bearer ; 
it makes a good pyramid on the quince stock, or does 
well for bush culture. It is scarcely of sufficiently 
robust habit to form large orchard trees : for that pur- 
pose it requires to be worked high up on some stronger- 
growing kind. 

The Passe Colmar is a middle-sized, thick-made pear, 
rather flattened at the top, green, turning yellowish 
when ripe, sprinkled with russet, and, if exposed, tinged 
with red. It has an uneven surface, with sliD:ht lono:i- 
' tudinal furrows from the stalk upwards. It is a juicy, 
rich-flavoured, nice pear, in use in December and 
January. It is an abundant bearer, either as a standard 
or on a w^all; and if it have a wall, an east or south-east 
aspect will do. 

The Beurre d'Aremberg is an excellent pear ; one that 
i no garden should be without. It is rather large, bossy 
i in shape, largest in the middle, pale green with russet 
' markings, changing to a yellow tinge when ripe. The 
j fruit is particularly delicious ; it is firm, juicy, sweet, free 
from grittiness, and very rich and excellent in flavour. 
I It is one of our best keeping pears, and is in use from 
' December to February. The eye is small, the stalk of 
. medium length, strong, straight, and set in an angular 



I 



76 



THE OECHAED AND FEIJIT GAEDEN. 



cavity, but in some specimens it is set diagonally under 
a boss. It is also called Colmar Descbamps, and by 
otber names. It does on pear or quince ; it is most 
general on tbe quince, and it does well either as a 
standard or on a wall. 

The Glout Morceau is another excellent and good 
keeping pear, similar to Beurre d'Aremberg in appear- 
ance, but larger. It is very good in flavour, but apt to 
be a little gritty round the core. It ripens in JNTovem- 
ber, and will keep until Pebruary or March. It will 
grow as a standard ; but, of course, better against a wall. 
Other names for it are Gloux Morceaux and Beurre 
d'Hardenpont. 

The Beurre Diel is a fine large pear, thick in the mid- 
dle, going ofi" to the eye and tapering to the stalk. It 
is bright green, changing to orange in ripening, with a 
little trace of russet. The eye is close, in a deep hollow, 
surrounded by knobs, ribs, or thick bosses, and the stalk 
is long, strong, bent, and set in a deep, irregularly-angled 
cavity. The pear is sweet, juicy, and melting, and deli- 
ciously rich and aromatic in flavour. It keeps from 
Kovember to January. It is a hardy tree, will do well 
as a standard, and is an abundant bearer. If it have a 
wall, an eastern aspect will do very well for it. Its popu- 
larity is attested by its numerous synonymes : Diel's 
Butterbine, Dorothee Eoyale, Beurre Eoyale, Beurre de 
Gelle, and Poire de Melon. 

The Chaumontelle is a fine, large, well-known, late pear, 
of an oblong, irregular, bossy figure, with a rough skin, 
varying in colour under difi'erent circumstances of ripening 
— yellowish-green, yellow, or cinnamon, ruddy on the 
sunny side, and marked with russet. It is very tender 
in the flesh, rich and high-flavoured, but it varies much 
in goodness from different circumstances, or if eaten a 
little too soon or a little too late. It is good from No- 
vember to March ; but the store should be constantly 
looked over with a discerning eye, to pick out those 
which are ready for eating. The eye is small, deeply 
sunk in an angular basin, and the stalk is short, set in a 
rather deep angular cavity. It has many names — Bezy 



keepi:n'G- peaes. 



77 



I de Chaumontelle, Beurre d'Hiver, AVinter Beurre, and 
i Oxford ChaumoDtelle. It is a hardy tree, grows well as a 
! standard or espalier; but of course the fruit is finest in 
a warm, favourable locality. It does best when grafted 
on the quince stock. AVhen the trees are planted in 
good soil, with a favourable aspect, the branches kept 
^ well apart, only strong spurs allowed, and the fruife 
j abundantly thinned out, the pears reach an amazing size. 
! In Jersey, the Chaumontelle pears form a staple product, 
and there are few even private gardens, the owners of 
which do not sell their pears for the supply of the 
London market. 

We now come to a period of the year when fruit is 
scarce indeed, when pears are getting very rare and ex- 
pensive, and when even our apple stores give in. There 
are three kinds w^hich should be especially looked after 
I for giving a supply from the time the Chaumontelies are 
'! used up until May, and as nearly on to June as can be: 
they are Easter Beurre, 'Beurre Eance, and J osephine de 
Malines. 

The Easter Beurre is a splendid pear, and one that 
keeps almost the best of any, but unfortunately it is a 
most uncertain bearer. Some trees will bear fine crops 
of splendid fruit year after year, and others may be 
treated with the greatest care, and borne with for many 
years, but seem obstinately bent on making positively no 
return, yet it is so excellent where it does do well as. to 
have many synonymes : in Erance it is well known as 
Beurre de la Pentecote, Bergamotte de la Pentecote, 
Beurre de Paques, Beurre d'Hiver de Bruxelles, and 
Doyenne d'Hiver. The result of my experience of the 
excellence of this capital late pear, and the difficulty of 
getting it, is not on any account to advise cultivators to 
do without it, for no garden should be without it, but to 
take especial pains to get good, productive Easter Beurres, 
and then to give them the care they deserve ; mind not 
to plant trees from any stock unless it is known to be 
good and productive. In Jersey, the very land of pears, 
the Easter Beurre is uncertain as elsew^iere. The fruit 
is large, and rather round, green, turning to russety- 



78 THE OECHA'RD AND TEriT GAEDEK. 



yellow ill ripening, Trith streaks of brown on the sunny 
side. It is delieiously mellow, juicy, and high-flavoured, 
and lasts, in good order, from Christmas to Slay, or even 
June. The eye is small, in a medium-sized basin, and 
the stalk is short and thick, set in a deep, angled cavity. 
It does on the pear or on the quince ; if the locality is 
not very favourable, it wants a south or south-east wall, 
but if it be pretty good it will thrive as a standard. 
Grafted on the quince, it is sometimes a profuse bearer, 
for when it does bear it bears very well. The wood of 
the tree is green ; it prefers rather a strong soil ; a poor, 
light one does not do for it at all. The Easter Berga- 
mot, or Bergamotte de Paque, is distinct from this, 
although similar to it in many points. It, too, is a good 
keeping pear. 

The Beurre Eance is one of the very best late sorts we 
have ; large, tapering to the stalk, dark green with rus- 
sety specks, and delieiously rich in flavour. It is rather 
apt to shrivel in ripening, but is nice from December to 
May. The eye is small and open, with a short calyx, 
scarcely at all sunk, and a stalk which is rather long and 
slender, set on without a cavity, but sometimes inserted 
diagonally under a wide boss. Other names for it are 
Beurre Epine, Beurre de Eantz, Beurre de Elandre, and 
some authorities say Hardenpont de Printemps. It is a 
good bearer. 

Josephine de Malines is another valuable keeping pear. 
It is a middle-sized, roundish pear, with a delicate skin, 
pale yellow, inclining to orange on the sunny and to green 
on the shady side, and delicately speckled with pale 
brown russet, which is a little stronger round the stalk 
and eye. The eye is open, with short, full calyx in a 
shallow basin, and the stalk is of medium length, and 
obliquely inserted in a small, narrow cavity. It has a 
peculiar hyacinth-like scent ; but this and the delicacy of 
flesh and skin are injured if the tree is grown in a heavy 
cold soil. The pear is rich, sweet, and juicy, with a very 
fine aroma. It is a good pear for coming in late, for it 
lasts through the spring, and has been kept until May. 
The tree is hardy, a good bearer, and not a rampant 



YAEIETIES OF THE LA.ST CEXTTJRT. 



79 



i grower. It does well for pyramids and dwarf bushes, 
and is good for training, being well furnished with buds. 
I Mr. Eivers has grown it successfully on the Hawthorn. 
I I have purposely made my list of keeping pears as 
lengthy as that of the more generally grown autumn 
'varieties, on account of the great value of their fruit 
; when this is almost the only choice fruit to be had. No 
I garden should be without Crassane, Winter Xelis, 
} Beurre d'Aremberg, Chaumontelle, Beurre Eance, and 
' Easter Beurre, if a good tree of this last can be had. 
j| The latest pears may often be left on the trees until 
the end of October, but the exact time of gathering, 
experience and the season must decide. In tolerably 
; early seasons the eighth of October is said to be tJie day 
I for gathering Cbaumontelles ; but any rule of the sort 
1 must, of course, be subject to variation with varying 
seasons and circumstances. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

YAEIETIES OP THE LAST CENTUET. 

The age and origin of our choicest varieties of pears is 
a subject of great interest. Whereas many first-class 
sorts have rewarded careful culture within the present 
century, others date back hundreds of years. The 
Autumn Bergamotte, a nice, familiar, and popular Octo- 
ber pear, is said to have been known in the time of 
Julius Caesar; the Easter Bergamotte, a nice late pear 
, (distinct from Easter Beurre), was known in the reign 
I of Elizabeth ; the Summer Bon Chretien is mentioned 
I as far back as 1629 ; and the early Beurre, or Ambrosia, 
was brought to Eugland from Erance at the time of 
the Eestoration. The Angelique de Bordeaux (Poir 
Angelique of Miller) was introduced in or about 1700; 
the Chaumontelle was a new kiad in 1760; and our 
Jargonelle, Virgouleuse, Winter Bon Chretien, and many 
others, are mentioned as long back as 1727. 



80 



THE OBCHAED AM rETJIT GAEDEN". 



The oldest version extant of Miller's list of pears 
(before 1765), includes many which are still jB.rst-rate 
favourites ; and it is so curious as a means of tracing 
back the origin of our fine old and new kinds, that I 
need no excuse for giving it entire : — 



1. Little Musk pear, commonly 

called the Supreme. 

2. CMo pear, or Little Bastard 

Musk. 

8. Hasting, or Grreen Chisel. 

4. Red Muscadelle, or Fairest. 

5. Little Muscat. 

6. Jargonelle. 

7. Windsor. 

8. Orange Musk. 

9. Great Blanket. 

10. Little Blanket. 

11. Long-stalked Blanket, 

12. Skinless. 

13. Musk Robin. 

14. Musk Drone. 

15. Grreen Orange. 

16. Cassolette. (Lechefrion.) 

17. Magdalene. 

18. Grreat Onion pear. 

19. August Muscat. 

20. Rose pear. 

21. Perfumed pear. 

22. Summer Bon Chretien, or 

Grood Christian. 

23. Salviati. 

24. Rose Water. 

25. Choaky pear. 

26. Russelet. (Qy. Rousselet.) 

27. Prince's pear. 

28. Great Mouth-Water. (Qy. is 

this Mouille Bouche.) 

29. Summer Bergamot. 

30. Autumn Bergamot. 

31. Swiss Bergamot. 

32. Red Butter pear. 

33. The Dean's pear. 

34. Long Green, or Autumn 

Mouth -Water. 

35. White and Grey Monsieur 

John. 



36. Flowered Muscat. 

37. Vine pear. 

38. Rousseline. 

39. The Knave's pear, 

40. Green Sugar. 

41. Marquis's pear. 

42. Burnt Cat, or Virgin of 

Xantonee. 

43. Le Besidery, or Bezy d'Heri 

(from Heri, a forest in 
Bretagne, between Rennes 
and Nantes). 

44. Crassane, or Flat Butter pear. 

45. Lansac, or Dauphine. 

46. Dry Martin. 

47. Villain of Anjou. Tulip or 

Orange. 

48. Large Stalk. 

49. Amadot. 

50. Little Lord. 

51. Good Louis. 

52. Colmar, Manna, or late Ber- 

gamot. 

53. Winter Long Green, or Lan- 

dry Wilding. 

54. La Virgoule, or Virgoleuse. 

55. Poire d'Ambrette, from its 

musky flavour, like the 
scent of Sweet Sultan — 
Ambrette in French. 

56. Winter Thorn, 

57. St. Germain, or unknown of 

La Fare : discovered on the 
banks of that river, in the 
parish of St. Germain. 

58. St. Augustine. 

59. Spanish Bon Chretien. 

60. Pound pear. 

61. Wilding of Cassoj^, a forest 

in Britanny, where it was 
discovered. 



VARIETIES OE THE LAST CENTIJRT. 



[62. Lord Martin. 

163. Winter Citron, or Musk 

Orange. 
64. "Winter Russelet. 
"65. Gate pear : discovered in 
' Poictou, where it was much 

esteemed. 
|66. Bergamot Bugi, or Easter 

Bergamot. 
j67. Winter Bon Chretien. 
|l€8. Catillac. (Baking.) 
''69. La Pastonrelle. 
j70. Double Flowering. (Baking.) 
||71. St. Martial, or Poire Ang6- 
ji Hque. 



81 

72. Wilding of Chaumontelle. 

73. Carmelite. 

74. Union. 

75. Aurate. 

76. Fine Present, or St. Samson. 

77. Le Bousselet de Reims. 

78. Summer Thorn. 

79. Egg pear : the shape of an 

egg- 

80. Orange Tulip. 

81. La Mansuette. 

82. Grerman Muscat. 

83. Holland Bergamot. 

84. Pear of Naples. 



The figures of this list do not agree with those quoted 

ijjby Dr. Lindlej and others from Miller's list of later 
idate ; and, on the other hand, it includes some which 
are not quoted from Miller. Alas ! among these once- 
favourites, how many there are whose names are never 

I [mentioned now : what do ive kaow about these three 

! 'Blankets, or the Choakj pear ? but it is pleasant to hear 
icews of that date of our splendid Chaumontelle, the 

i iJargonelle — that welcome, early visitor — the Cassolette, 
the Bergamots, the Mouille Bouche, the Bon Chretien, 

j the Louise Bonne, Crassane, and such-like abiding 
'favourites. The White Doyenne, Doyenne d'Or, or St. 
[Michel, than which no pear is more delicious, appears to 
"have been well known to Miller, and popular in his day, 
rather more than a hundred years ago ; and he names 

! the Black pear of "Worcester, for cooking, and Lord 

i Cheyne's pear, or the Holland Bergamot, for eating, as 
in use for July, if kept with care. 

Those who wish to pursue this subject further than 

jWe have space or opportunity for here, may consult 
(Parkinson, who wrote a folio volume in 1629, Miller, 
>lwhose works date from the middle of the last century, 
Duhamel's Traite des arh^es Fruitiers, 1768, and many 

I iDther excellent works, both in English and French, from 

I that time to the present. 



I 



82 



TnE OECHARD AKD PRUIT GAEDE^iT. 



CKAPTEE XIV. 

QTJIKCES AlsD BAKIKa PEAES. 

A FEW paragraphs on quinces will suffice ; but as they 
are allied to the pear, they may as well follow after it. 
It is most familiar to those who delight in cultiyating 
fine fruit, from furnishing the most popular, and I think, 
without question, generally the best stocks for our 
choice and favourite pears. But it is also, for itself, a 
fruit worth cultivating, if room can be spared for a tree, 
because stewed quinces are really very delicious, much 
finer than any stewed pears, and for cooking in different 
ways, and for marmalade, they are good. 

The quince may be «grovvn from cuttings, layers, or 
suckers. Choose young wood for cuttings, and plant 
them in autumn, winter, or early spring. For layering, 
draw down 3^oung wood at the same time. By the 
following autumn, in either case, the young plants will 
have rooted. Suckers may be taken from quince trees 
on their own roots, and sorts may be propagated by 
grafting or budding on either quince or pear stocks. 

The autumn after they are made, the young plants 
may be planted out in rows two feet apart, and the 
same distance from plant to plant, and suckers may be 
planted out the same. 

As time goes on, train the young trees in any way 
required. If for standards, train to a stem three feet 
high or more, and then allow them to branch, with 
tliree or four regular, uniform branches. If for dwarfs, 
head them back near the ground, and train them for 
espaliers or dwarf standards. 

When they have formed good heads, plant them out 
finally, either in the garden or orchard, or by the side 
of water. 

To make quince stocks, put down layers at the time 



QUINCES AND BAKIli^G PEAES. 



83 



above named, let there not be more than two ejes 
brought above ground, and when those shoot and grow 
five or six inches long, cut one off clean, and leave the 
other to form the plant. This by the next autumn 
should be three feet high. Plant them out in rows as 
soon as the leaves are off the trees, shorten them back 
to 18 inches, and at the end of one or two years they 
will be ready to graft with pears for dwarf trees. If 
for taller trees, they may be allowed to grow longer, and 
must be left to grow tall, not shortened back. 

Quinces may be planted in orchards or gardens with 
other fruit trees. Experienced cultivators have decided 
that there is no danger of their injuring apples or pears 
by crossing. 

There are four varieties. 

The sweet, or apple-shaped quince, Cydonia mali- 
formis^ I think, is the best. A fine sort of this, ripened 
in the climate of Constantinople, is eaten as a fruit, and 
is much liked, although rather astringent in flavour. It 
is very handsome, like a large, round, somewhat flattened 
apple, and bright in colour. 

The pear-shaped quince, Cydonia oblonga, is shaped 
like a pear, as its name denotes. It is used in pies, for 
marmalade, &c. ; but it is not so fine in flavour as the 
first-named sort. 

The Portugal quince, Cydonia Lusita?iica,'hears oblong 
fruit, which turns to a fine purple when dressed. It is 
juicy, not very harsh, is said to be best for marmalade, 
and is the sort most favoured in England now. 

The Chinese quince, Wydonia Sinensis, bears cylin-^ 
drical fruit, which is six inches long, but very gritty^ 
It has borne in England, but it requires a wall. 

The apple-shaped quince is scarce, but it may be 
obtained from good fruit-growers ; it is very superior in 
flavour and appearance. The quince is worth growing, 
if only on account of the size and beauty of the 
bloom. 

About one good baking-pear tree is sufliciently useful 
to deserve a place in every garden where room can be 
spared for it. 

a 2 



84 THE OECHAED AIsD FEUIT GAEDEN. 



Belle de Jersey is about the largest. It is pear- 
shaped, a little bent in the middle, smooth dark green, 
with dull brown on one side, turning to red on a 
yellowish ground as it reaches maturity. The flesh is 
white, hard, gritty at the core, and too austere and 
astringent to eat raw, but it stews or bakes well. The 
eye is wide, in a deep hollow, and the stalk is of 
medium length, bent, and inserted in a deep angular 
cavity. It is more often mentioned as Uvedale's St. 
Germain, and other names are Union, Udale's "Warden, 
Pickering, and Poire de Tonneau. It requires a favour- 
ablei locality, or a wall, for the fruit to be fine, and it is 
in use from Christmas to April. 

Tresor Amour, or Tresor d'Amour, is the best 
stewing pear to have, although less handsome in shape 
than Belle de Jersey, and not so large. It is, however, 
a fine large pear, rough in the skin, yellowish-green, 
and ruddy-brown on the sunny side. It is roundish, 
compressed at both ends, with a small eye in a wide 
open basin, and a stout stalk, of medium length, set in 
a deep cavity. It is juicy when it is ripe, less harsh 
than other baking pears, stews tender in a short time, 
and is fine in flavour and colour. The tree is said to do 
best on a pear stock. It is in use from December until 
March ; after it has been kept too long it loses its 
flavour. It is of vigorous growth, and does well as a 
standard almost anywhere. 

Other stewing pears are Bellissime d'Hiver, a very 
large, roundish sort, and less gritty than most, in use 
from November to April. The^Black pear of Worcester, 
also called Parkinson's Warden, Pound pear, Livre, 
G-ros Eateau Gris, Grande Monarque, and Groote 
Mogul, is a large roundish, coarse-grained pear of 
vigorous growth, in use from November to February. 
The Double-blossomed, Double fleur, or Armenie, is 
a handsome and highly ornamental tree, on account 
of its fine, large, double flowers. The fruit is small 
for a baking pear, roundish, and a little pinched in 
towards the stalk. It is green, turning to yellow 
when ripe, and red, or pale purple, on the sunny 



QUINCES AND BAKING PEAES. 



85 



side ; it is crisp and juicy. The eye is small, with 
an erect calyx, in an even, shallow basin, and the 
stalk is of medium length, and set in a very small 
cavity. It is in use from February to May, and does 
better on the pear than on the quince. It is sometimes 
variegated in foliage, when the fruit is striped with 
green, yellow, and red. 

The Catillac is a well-known and popular pear. 
Large, roundish, yellow, when well matured in a warm 
season orange, with bright red on the sunny side. The 
eye is small, with a short, neat calyx, in .a deep, wide, 
plaited hollow ; the stalk is stout, curved, and set a little 
obliquely in a small cavity. The flesh is firm, and the 
fruit is in use from December until April. It grows 
best on the pear. The tree is handsome in growth, 
hardy, a very good bearer, and does well as a standard. 

Chaumontelles which fall from the trees too soon for 
storing or using any other way, but which have nearly 
reached maturity, are very good for baking or stewing, 
and are fine and rich in colour, if the necessary means to 
make them so are taken in the cooking. 

Por having the colour good in stewed pears they 
should be done slowly : if several hours' slow simmering 
be allowed them, and they are then stood aside in the 
stewpan, covered close until cold, they will be fine in 
flavour and colour, and they have no need of the dis- 
agreeable addition of cochineal. If the fruit is stewed 
quickly, and turned out at once, it is very apt to be poor 
in colour, although some pears stew to a much finer red 
than others : Tresor is one of the best in this particular. 

In baking pears in the skins the same rule should be 
observed. There is no better plan than to put a dish of 
pears in the oven in the evening, and leaving them in 
all night, and when they are soft, they will be a fine red 
throughout. 

Quinces also require slow stewing. 

There is no greater improvement to stewed pears than 
a little of the delicious flavour of the quince. If one 
quince be sliced into the liquor in which the pears are 
to be stewed, it will impart great richness to the flavour. 



86 



THE OECHAED AND FEXJIT GAEDEN. 



Both pears and quinces should be peeled and cored 
quickly, and, one hy one, as the}^ are done, dropped into 
the water which is to form the liquor, and which should 
bo no more than enough barely to cover the fruit, when 
packed in close. Sugar and lemon-peel to taste may be 
added, and the liquor may be allowed to waste consider- 
ably ; as the fruit gets uncovered by the wasting of the 
liquor, the steam will carry on the cooking process, if 
the stewpan is shut down as perfectly tight as it ought, 
and is kept close shut. 

If there be any particular reason for wishing to graft 
any, either eating or baking pears, on the quince stock, 
which will not commonly grow well upon it, it may be 
made to do so by double working. Graft or bud a free 
growing sort on the quince, let it grow for a season or 
two, and then graft or bud it with the desired sort. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

APPLES. 

If the pear is the most delicious, the apple is the most 
useful of fruits. In the ungenial springs of our climate 
pears are often lost, apples seldom : wisely blooming 
later, they escape the sharp spring frosts, and briug their 
fruit to perfection when the earlier flowering and more 
tender trees are stripped. The crop, too, is as lasting as 
it is secure, and we think the lady a poor manager who 
Las not her store of apples to go to for winter and spring 
use, whether she have to purchase, or be in the more 
favourable case of having the opportunity of growing 
choice sorts in her own ground. 

I say choice sorts advisedly, for who that can produce 
first-class fruit would tolerate inferior sorts, requiring 
equal attention, care, and cost at so inferior a return? 

Of this most varied and useful fruit, the apple, Pyrus 
onalus, no less than 1,500 varieties have been named, and 
about nine hundred had some time back been cultivated 
in the gardens of the Horticultural Society. The best 



APPLES. 



87 



. .11 for apples is a deep, strong, rather adhesive loam, 
resting on a sound, dry subsoil. In sour, wet land they 
never do well, so that the ground must be drained if 
necessary. Apples, like pears, are chiefly propagated by 
grafting, occasionally by budding. 

Crab stocks are often raised from the kernel, but 
Codling and Paradise stocks by cuttings and layers. 
"When the young stocks are sufficiently grown, shorten 
the tap roots, and plant them out a foot apart, in rows 
two and a half feet apart. In about three years they 
will be fit for grafting for dwarf or low training, or 
even, if well grown, for standards, if it be intended to 
form the stem from the graft. If the stock is to form 
the stem, it must be left to make about four years' 
growth, and be encouraged to a straight, upright growth. 
If strong stems are wanted to make orchard standards, 
let the side-shoots grow one year, and then only shorten 
them. These may be totally removed later, and the 
best season to do it is about midsummer, for the wounds 
will skin over better in the growing season than during 
the time of non- growth. 

Get the scions cut in January or Pebruary, tie them 
in bundles, label them carefully, and plant the ends in the 
earth in a cool, damp place, safe from sun and wind. The 
stocks should be ready to burst the skin of the buds be- 
fore they are grafted, the cut grafts will be backwarder, 
so that nourishment from the stocks will be waiting for 
them when they are ready to commence growing. The 
process of grafting was entered into in the fourth 
chapter. 

The Burr-knot, Codling, and Juneating are the sorts 
that may best be raised from cuttings, and the young 
trees are less liable to canker than their parents. Take 
the cuttings from the horizontal branches, about eight 
inches long, with a bit of the old wood to each. Eub 
off all the buds but the top three, set them firmly in 
sandy loam, cover them with a glass, and give water 
from, time to time. Shade them from hot sun ; in July 
the glass may be taken off*, and in the autumn they may 
be planted oiit. 



88 THE ORCHABD AKD PRIJIT GAEDEK. 



The Doucin or Paradise stock for apples, like the 
quince stock for pears, is good for throwing fibrous 
roots near the surface of the ground, thus collecting 
the best nourishment for the tree, and for transmitting 
moderate growth and great fertility to the graft, which 
makes the tree bear early and well. On the Continent a 
distinction is made between the Doucin. and Paradise 
stocks ; the Doucin is used for pyramidal, and the Para- 
dise (too poor in growth for our climate) for dwarf-bush 
training, the Doucin stock being of freer growth than 
the Pomme de Paradis, but much less free than the crab 
stock. The Burr-knot is a large culinary apple, which 
roots very readily from cuttings. Young seedling apple 
trees sometimes show a surface-rooting habit : any such 
that have a good growth and fine, healthy foliage, deserve 
attention with a view to stocks. 

Young apple trees that have been grafted two or three 
years may be removed from the nursery. If for pyra- 
midal training, they should have straight centre stems, 
well furnished with buds and shoots down to the stock, 
if for bush training, they may branch from within a foot 
of the ground. Put no manure round the roots in 
planting them, but shake a little light, friable mould in 
amongst the roots, fill in the earth, and scatter a little 
half-rotted manure on the surface of the ground, and 
the same surface-dressing may be given every autumn. 

Trees to be trained for standards should have not less 
than three, nor more than four, healthy, evenly balanced 
shoots, to become at a future time the main branches. 
At the end of a year these branches should be headed 
down or not, according to the growth of the tree : and 
as the head grows thicker, all crowding shoots should be 
cleared away. 

Pyramids may be pruned and trained, as mentioned for 
pyramidal pears, and dwarf bushes must be allowed 
shoots enough to form an equal, regularly shaped little 
tree ; and the same pinching back and treatment recom- 
mended for pears may be pursued with them. As the 
tree grows, the head should be kept well balanced, so 
that one side shall not be higher or more crowded in its 



APPLES. 



89 



branches than the other, and all the branches distinct 
and apart from each other. This regularity of growth 
will not be difficult to keep up, by observing in every 
leading shoot that is pruned the growth which is required, 
and cutting it accordingly back to a bud which tends 
towards the centre of the tree, or points outwards, not 
to one pointing sideways to right or left. There must 
never be branches enough left to crowd each other ; but 
the tree must be kept open in the centre, to let in plenty 
of sun and air. 

The prettiest espalier, or wall tree, is formed with a 
centre upright shoot, and side-shoots from it on each 
side, to match each other. They must be early trained 
to stakes, to get them to form. A wall is seldom granted 
to an apple tree. 

Apples of a compact, upright, cypress-like habit of 
growth are fit for pyramids, but require horizontal 
training of the side branches, to admit air. Those that 
are horizontal and crooked in growth make good bushes. 
All pears on quince stocks, and apples on Doucin or 
Paradise stocks, will need thinning out of the fruit. 

Training en cordon liorizonial is a Erench fashion, and 
may be used as an edge to the borders. A tree on a 
Paradise stock, with a single stem, is set in slanting, and 
trained along a rod, fixed ten inches above the ground, 
and horizontal to it. The wire is supported by pins 
here and there ; the end of the tree is never shortened, 
but the side-shoots are continually kept pinched back to 
three leaves all the summer. It will often grow very 
long, and produce fine fruit. 

Pj^ramids of apples on crab stocks, or pears on pears, 
may be trained into handsome pyramidal trees, twelve or 
fifteen feet high. Pinching back must be carefully 
attended to. 

The apple may be treated the same as the pear in 
continual pinching back to three leaves each, all except 
the leading shoots, throughout the summer, and cutting 
them later in the season, as recommended in a former 
chapter. 

The fruit must be thinned in June, and especial care 



90 THE OECHAED Als^D rEUIT GAEDEK. 



must be taken not to allow young trees to bear too heavy 
crops, as that will throw them back for several years. 
Apples of large kinds should be allowed to mature only 
one on each fruit-bearing spur, but smaller sorts may 
have two or three. 

Perhaps there is not a more beautiful tree grown than 
a bush-trained apple in full health and culture ; and it 
is difficult to know which most to admire, — its free and 
graceful growth and fine glossy foliage, the beautiful 
size, variegation, and sweetness of the bloom, or the 
plump, mellow richness of the fruit. 

Apples on stocks of a dwarf habit of growth may 
not grow freely enough for poor, light soils, or for very 
tenacious ground ; some persons, too, may prefer tall 
trees to those of a low habit and growth. In these 
cases, trees on crab stocks may be chosen. "When trees 
incline to a too luxuriant habit of growth, inducing 
canker, root-pruning must be resorted to. 

Prom the refreshing piquancy of the apple, early 
apples are perhaps about as welcome in most families as 
early pears ; and our lists are pretty rich in having a 
good many nice-flavoured dessert kinds. Six may be 
more than a medium-sized garden will require ; for sum- 
mer fruit of this description, although nice, must not be 
allowed to trench on the yet more valuable winter supply ; 
from these six, however, a choice can be made. 

The Juneating is about the best known and most 
popular summer apple — a small, green, round fruit, 
somewhat flattened at both ends, turning to a yellow- 
green when quite ripe, with a little red on the sunny 
side. It is a tender, yet crisp, nice-flavoured little apple, 
when just ready for eating ; but it turns poor and mealy 
in a very few days. The eye is small, with a closed calyx 
in a wrinkled basin, and the stalk is slender, of medium 
length, and set in a small, narrow cavity. It is ripe the 
end of July and beginning of August ; and as a crop 
does not all come forward at once, one will last from 
first to last about a month. The tree bears well. 

The Irish Peach-apple is the best-flavoin-ed early apple 
we have ; white in the flesh, tender, rich, juicy, and high- 



APPLES. 



91 



flavoured. It is a very bright-coloured, beautiful-looking 
apple ; a bright yellow-green, with a rosy cheek ; large 
for an early apple, round, and a little flattened at the 
ends. The eye is nearly closed by the segments of the 
calyx, and the stalk is short. It is an eating apple, and 
is ripe in August. It is known also as the early Crofton, 
is a capital bearer, and will keep in use for a month. 

The White Astrakan is another very nice early eating 
apple, ripening early in August. It is whitish-green in 
colour, and smooth and delicate, with a bloom upon the 
skin, and a rosy tint on one side. The flesh is white, 
sometimes transparent, crisp, tender, juicy, and very 
pleasant and delicate in flavour. The eye is depressed in 
a small hollow, and the stalk thick and very short. Other 
names for it are Glace de Zelande, Transparent de Mos- 
covie, and Fyrus Astracanica, It will keep above a fort- 
night ; it is a hardy tree and a good bearer, and, as its 
name imports, it came originally from Eussia. There 
is also a red Astrakan, which comes in at the same time, 
and is very nice also. 

The Eed Quarenden is a deservedly popular early 
apple. It is below middle size, but a little larger than 
the Juneating, and of a uniform deep crimson, with 
green dots, and sometimes green on the shady side. The 
flesh is tinged with green, and the apples should be eaten 
soon after they are gathered, when they are crisp, juicy, 
and pleasant in flavour. The fruit from one good tree 
will keep in use for six weeks. The eye has a calyx, 
closed by long segments, and is surrounded by little 
knotty protuberances ; and the stalk is short, thick, and 
deeply inserted. It ripens the middle of August, but 
need not be gathered until after the fruit begins to 
fall. It is well known as the Devonshire Quarenden ; 
but it does not seem to be much known in that county, 
but rather to be popular in Somersetshire and Glouces- 
tershire. The Sack apple is another of its names. The 
tree bears well, and deserves a place in any garden. 
There is also a White Quarenden, which ^ ripens in 
eptember. 

The Summer Golden Pippin deserves a place as a 



92 



THE OECHAED AND rETJIT GAEDEI^". 



handsome and excellent little eating apple. It is small 
and round, a little inclining to oblong, flattened at both 
ends. The skin is smooth, shining, and yellow, deepen- 
ing to orange on the sunny side, with streaks of red. 
The flesh is whitish, firm, delicious in flavour, and very 
juicy, without perfume. The eye is wide and rather 
hollow, and the stalk short, inserted in a middle-sized 
cavity. 

The Spring Grove Codlin has the advantage of being 
the earliest cooking apple of the year, being ready for 
tarts in July, and lasting until October or November. 
All the Codlins are similar in shape, measuring rather 
more in depth than in diameter, wide at the base, grow- 
ing narrower towards the crown, angular at the sides, 
and bossy round the crown. The eye is closed by wide 
short segments of calyx, and is slightly sunk in a narrow, 
plaited basin ; the stalk is short and set in a cavity, 
which it scarcely projects beyond. It is a greenish- 
yellow apple, tinged with orange on the sunny side. The 
flesh is sweet, with a little acid, and slightly perfumed. 
There are several of the Codlins that come in early. 
Lord Suffield also is one of the very best early cooking 
apples. 

The following good useful kinds of cooking apples, or 
a few of them, will keep up the supply until after Christ- 
mas, thus economically allowing the better keeping sorts 
to remain until the early part of the year : — 

The Old English Codlin is a well-known cooking apple, 
coming in usefully in the autumn, but not keeping very 
long. It is above the middle size, wide at the base, 
angular at the sides, and tapering to a comparatively 
narrow, bossy crown. To obtain good Codlins it is ne- 
cessary to graft on a sound hedge-crab, when they form 
fine heads and produce good fruit ; and it is then found 
less subject to the aphis than when the trees are grown 
from suckers. The Dutch Codlin is very large. The 
Keswick Codlin is, I believe, the five-crowned apple of 
some parts ; the little apples may be used in tarts as soon 
as June, and are quite ready in August. It is such 
a ready and abundant bearer, that it has been much 



APPLES. 



93 



recommended to plant trees of it in cottage-gardens bj 
owners of land. 

The Hawthornden is a good cooking apple from 
^Michaelmas to Christmas. It is generally a regularly 
formed, good4ooking apple, rather above the middle size ; 
but sometimes it is irregularly ridged from crown to 
base. It is greenish-yellow, with a blush on the sunny 
side, smooth, glossy skin, white flesh, and plenty of well- 
flavoured juice. The eye is small, set deep, with plaits 
round it ; and the stalk is slender, rather long, and set in 
deep. The tree grows well, and bears near the ends of 
the branches, which gives it a drooping growth ; it is a 
very good bearer. 

Alfriston, or Sheppard's Seedling, is a fine large apple, 
green, turning to yellow tinged with orange in ripening, 
and with delicate russet markings. It is oblong in 
shape, broad at the base, becoming narrower towards the 
crown, and irregularly ribbed at the sides, one of the 
ridges being generally larger than the rest. The flesh is 
tinged with yellow, crisp and tender, with plenty of sweet, 
piquant juice. It is an excellent apple and a good 
bearer, coming in from October to Christmas. This is 
superior in flavour to both the Codlins and the Haw- 
thornden, although they are convenient from coming 
earlier. 

There are several good autumn eating apples from 
which to choose. As fine, handsome apples of large size, 
we have the Emperor Alexander and Beauty of Kent, 
kinds not to be surpassed ; while, as very pretty smaller 
apple?, there are the Golden Pippin, iS^onesuch, and 
Scarlet Pearmain. 

The Emperor Alexander is a fine, large, roundish 
apple, wide at the base, and tapering to a narrow crown. 
It is a splendid-lookiijg apple, greenish-yellow, with red 
streaks, but bright rt- d and orange, beautifully varied, on 
the sunny side. The flesh is tinted with yellow, crisp and 
tender, with a sweet, aromatic, delicious flavour. The eye 
is large, and deeply set in a smooth, round basin; and 
the stalk of medium, length. It is an ornament to any 
garden or to any table : no garden should be without it. 



94 THE OECHAED AND FEriT GAEDEIf. 



The tree is a good bearer, and its fruit is a valuable eat- 
ing apple from October to about Christmas. It is also 
called Eussian Emperor, Alexander, and Aporta. 

The Eeauty of Kent is another splendid apple, large, 
and irregularly ribbed on the sides. The colour is clear 
yello^Yish-green, mottled with red, bright red and yellow 
on the sunny side, and with russet markings round the 
base. The flesh is yellowish-white, crisp and tender, and 
the juice plentiful and piquant. The eye is small, closed 
by a short calyx, and set in a narrow, angular basin; and 
the stalk is short and slender, and deeply set in a funnel- 
shaped cavity. It is a handsome and good apple, and 
comes in well from Michaelmas to Christmas. 

The Ifonesuch is a very pretty and delicious little 
apple, very round and regular in shape, without bosses 
or angles, pale yellow, spotted and marbled with orange, 
with streaks and patches of red on the sunny side. 
The flesh is white, tender, juicy, and sweet, with a 
slightly perfumed flavour. It is rather below the middle 
size, and is a handsome-looking dessert apple from 
Michaelmas to about Christmas. Other names are JN'one- 
such, and Langton JSTonesueh. It is a good cooking- 
apple, and is one of the best kinds for making jelly. 
There is also a Winter Nonesuch, which is a good cook- 
ing apple ; it comes in in November and keeps until 
March. 

The Scarlet Crofton is an Irish dessert apple, similar 
in size and shape to the early Crofton or Irish Peach 
apple. The eye is wide but shallow, and the stalk short 
and sometimes bent. It is yellowish-russet, and red 
and russet on the sunny side, and the flesh is firm, 
crisp, juicy, sweet, and high-flavoured, and never 
becomes mealy. It ripens in October and lasts until 
Christmas. 

The Golden Pippin, celebrated alike for beauty and 
delicacy, both of flavour and constitution, is a kind which 
every cultivator should possess if he can ; but it is a tree 
which it is often difficult to procure, andjsvhich requires 
careful culture, a good soil, and a good situation. It is, 
however, worth all the care it can have. 



APPLES. 



95 



The fruit is small and perfectly round, from one to 
two iuches in depth and diameter ; a little larger some- 
times on young and comparatively vigorous trees, and 
smaller on old trees. The flesh is a pale bright gold 
colour, crisp, juicy, sweet, rich, and exceedingly delicious 
in flavour when we get it in perfection. The eye is 
small, in an even, shallow basin ; and the stalk is long, for 
the size of the fruit, and slender. Of course the bright 
gold colour of the skin is very important : the gold is 
marked with russet specks on the sunny side, and with 
minute pearl-coloured specks embedded all over it. 
Many declare that the Golden Pippin is dying out in 
the country, and others consider that it may yet be 
procured and grown in as great perfection as ever. 
Lindley says, " In favourable situations, in many parts 
of the country, instead of the trees being in a state of 
rapid decay, they may be found of unusually large size, 
perfectly healthy, and with abundant crops of fruit, 
perfect in form, beautiful in colour, and excellent in 
quality." 

The Grolden Pippin must have a dry subsoil, good 
sound loam to grow in, and a sheltered, sunny situation, 
safe from the bitter blasts of spring. "Where it can ripen 
its wood well it will thrive and keep free from decay. 
The tree must be cut in close, to promote a vigorous 
growth, and manuring with judgment will do good, 
while care should be taken to defend the tree from 
injurious insects. It does well on a wall, and deserves 
it. The fruit ripens in October, and will keep until 
after Christmas. 

The Downton Pippin is a very nice little apple, 
rather larger than the Golden Pippin, flattened at both 
ends, and generally rather larger on one side than on 
the other, smooth-skinned and yellow, with indistinct 
specks all over it. The flesh is a little yellow and crisp, 
with brisk, rich sub-acid juice. It ripens in October or 
]N"ovember, is a good eating apple, and will keep until 
Christmas. The tree is a very plentiful bearer, well 
calculated for supplying the market, and the fruit is a 
good cider apple. Other names by which it is known 



96 



l^HE OECHAED AKD FETJIT GAEDEIf. 



are Elton Pippin, Elton Golden Pippin, Knight's Pippin, 
and Knight's Golden Pippin. 

The King of the Pippins has fruit above the middle 
size, rather oblong, a little \Yide at the base, even and 
regular in shape, without angles, smooth in skin, pale 
orange, tinged with red on the sunny side, and generally 
a little streaked with the same. The eye is large, and set 
deep in an even, very little plaited basin ; and the stalk 
is long, slender, and half sunk in a funnel-shaped cavity. 
The flesh is yellow-white, firm, crisp, juicy, sweet, and 
full-flavoured. It is a handsome apple, nice for eating 
in November and December, and the tree is hardy and 
a good bearer. It is also called the Hampshire Yellow. 

Tlie Scarlet Pearmain, or Bell's Scarlet, is a middle- 
sized apple, with the conical form of the Pearmains, 
bright crimson on the sunny side, and a mixture of red 
aad yellow on the other. The flesh is white, crisp, 
juicy, sweet, and with a rich, pleasant flavour. The eye 
is middle - sized, deep, surrounded by small plaits, 
crowned by a green calyx ; and the stalk is rather long, 
slender, and set in deep. It is a handsome dessert apple 
from September to December. 

The Summer Pearmain is another nice apple, of 
medium size, oblong, tapering gradually from the base 
to the crown, bright gold colour, sprinkled all over with 
small brown specks, and bright orange and scarlet on 
the sunny side. The flesh is pale yellow, firm and 
crisp, with a fine aromatic flavour, but not very juicy. 
The eye is small, with a calyx nearly closed in a wide, 
shallow, rather plaited basin ; and the stalk is short and 
obliquely inserted in a knob upon the fruit. It is a 
capital and nice-looking eating apple, ripening in 
October and keeping until Christmas. It has uiany 
names, among others theEoyal Pearmain, Old Pearmain, 
and Pearmain d'Ete. In some seasons it ripens as early 
as September. The tree is an excellent bearer, and pro- 
duces many fruit- spurs, on which account it is good for 
espaliers, for which it should be grafted on the Doucin 
stock- The branches have a slender, pretty growth. 



KEEPI^ra APPLES. 



97 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

KEEPIiN'a APPLES. 

We next come to the apples whicli have more lengthened 
keeping properties, on which we depend for a supply of 
the most useful of all fruits until the time when we 
may begin to look for the return of fruit again. 

The Grolden Eusset is a middle-sized apple, regular 
in outline, without angles, a little flattened at the ends, 
of a yellow-russet colour, rather rough and thick in 
the skin, and sometimes ruddy on the sunny side. The 
ilesh is pale yellow, firm, crisp, sweet, with an aromatic, 
rather musky taste, and not very juicy. The eye is 
rather small, close, a little depressed, with irregular 
plaits round ; and the stalk is very short, and is deeply 
inserted in an uneven, narrow cavity, not projecting so 
far as the base of the apple. It is a good-looking and 
nice-flavoured dessert apple from December to April, 
and is also excellent for cooking. The trees have a thin 
and rather drooping growth : they are hardy, and often 
bear well in bleak situations. 

The Pine-Apple Eusset, or Eeinette Anana, is a 
middle-sized apple of a bright golden russet, regular in 
form, with the russet flavour heightened with plentiful, 
rich, high-flavoured juice, having something of the 
flavour of the pine apple. This, too, is good for either 
eating or cooking. 

The Blenheim Orange, Woodstock Pippin, or Blenheim 
Pippin, is at once one of the handsomest, largest, and 
most useful apples we have. It is a large, roundish 
apple, rather widest at the base, of a bright orange 
colour when ripe, with a glowing rosy cheek. The 
flesh is yellow, breaking very juicy, sweet, and with a 
delicious high flavour. The eye is hollow and open, in 
a slightly angular cavity. It is one of the largest 

H 



98 THE OECHAUD AXD EEUIT OAEDEJT. 



and Handsomest of our table apples, and is also delicious 
for cooking. It is in use from November to March. 
The kind was originated at AVoodstock, and it soon 
made its wa}^ and became deservedly very popular. 'No 
garden should be without a tree, for, in addition to the 
goodness of the fruit, it grows well, and is a capital 
bearer ; so good that I have known old degenerate 
trees without care produce a great quantity of small 
fruit : its small size was, of course, in the absence of 
careful culture. 

Eeinette de Canada is another fine large apple which, 
on account of its goodness, no garden should be without. 
The fruit is large, broad, and flat, a fine greenish-yellow, 
a little tinged with red on the sunny side ; the flesh is 
yellowish-white, firm and juicy, with a brisk, high- 
flavoured, sub-acid piquancy. The eye is rather open, 
with a short calyx, in a cavity surrounded with prominent 
ribs passing down the fruit half way ; and the stalk is 
short, and set in a wide, open cavity. It is a good- 
bearing, excellent tree. The apple comes in in Decem- 
ber and : will keep until March. It is a handsome 
and delicious dessert apple ; and it is equally good for 
cooking. 

The Lemon Pippin is an old-fashioned but very nice 
apple to have. The fruit is middle-sized, oval, and regu- 
larly formed, without angles. The eye is small, open, 
with a short, slender calyx, and is a little depressed. 
The stalk is short, and growing from a knob at the end of 
the apple, which is yellowish-green in colour, turning to 
yellow in ripening, without red or russet markings. The 
flesh is firm, high-flavoured and pleasant, but not very 
juicy. This, too, is an apple which is equally nice for 
eating or cooking. The tree is hardy, an excellent 
bearer, and a very good sort for orchards. It has an 
erect, free, handsome growth, and the fruit is good- 
looking, as well as fine in flavour. 

The above kinds of good keeping apples may be 
especially valuable in small gardens, on account of the 
fruit being either for eating or cook4ng. Some kinds 
are fit only for cooking. 



KEEPIira APPLES. 



99 



The Grolden jSToble is, perhaps, the best cooking apple 
we have. It bakes to a soft, araber-coloured pulp, with a 
fine rich flavour, and just acidity enough, not too much. 
The fruit is large and round, becoming a little narrower 
towards the crown. The skin is beautifully smooth and 
polished, and of a fine, clear golden yellow, wath just a 
few reddish markings and little patches of russet. The 
flesh is yellow, tender, and juicy, w^ith a pleasant sub- 
acid flavour. The eye is small, and surrounded by 
little plaits, and the stalk very short and thick. It is in 
use from J^ovember until March. The tree is hardy and 
good, and bears very well. 

The "Wellington is another good cooking, keeping 
apple. The fruit is above the middle size, round, and 
flattened at both ends, clear yellow, with light red on 
the sunny side, and speckled with brown all over. The 
flesh is yellow and crisp, with a brisk acid flavour. The 
eye is large, open, and rather deeply sunk, and the stalk 
very short. -Other names for it are Dumelow's Seed- 
ling, Duke of Wellington, and jSTormanton Wonder. It 
keeps remarkably sound and good, and is in use from 
]^^ovember to April. The tree is a good bearer. 

The Norfolk Beaufin is a kind which deserves a place 
in the garden, if there be room to spare. Like baking 
pears and quinces, it is of no use except for cooking. 
The fruit is above the middle size, irregular in shape, with 
broad angles from base to crown. The colour is deep 
green, with livid red nearly round the fruit, but deepest 
on the sunny side. The flesh is very firm, rather acid, 
and not juicy ; but when the fruit is slowly baked, and 
pressed, it has a rich, fine flavour. The eye is large, in 
a deep basin, surrounded by irregular plaits ; and the 
stalk not long, fleshy, and deeply set. Other names for 
it are Norfolk Eeefin, and Eead's Baker. It is in use 
from November to June. The tree is rather tender and 
apt to canker, so it requires a good soil and a warm 
position. The fruit, dried and pressed, is a very con- 
venient addition to the dessert throughout the winter, 
and makes variety all the time that fruit is most 
scarce. 

H 2 



100 THE OECHAED A2sD FEUIT GAEDEN. 



We may now finish up the list with a few good eating 
apples, which will keep until nearly the time when fruit 
comes round again, although some have been already 
mentioned among those which are good for either eating 
o:' cooking. 

The Old Nonpareil is a little below the middle size, 
flat, and rather widest at the base, greenish-yellow when 
ripe, covered with pale russet, and ruddy when exposed 
to the sun. It eats firm and crisp, and is deliciously 
high-flavoured and aromatic, but not very juicy. The 
eye is very small a?id prominent, or scarcely at all 
depressed ; and the stalk is long, slender, and standing 
out beyond the base of the fruit. It is a very old 
favourite, and has many names : the English Xonpareil, 
Hunt's j>7onpareil, Non-paraille, Eeinette Nonparaille, 
and Griine Eeinette. It is one of our most delicious 
sorts ; the trees are good and regular bearers, and the 
fruit is in perfection from December to the end of 
March, but it will keep until May. To have the fruit 
in the highest perfection, graft it on the Doucin stock, 
in a good soil, and cultivate it with care. There are 
several other jN'onpareils which are all more or less 
good. Braddick's jN'onpareil keeps well until April, 
and is an abundant bearer. The Downton ^^Tonpareil 
is rich in flavour, and keeps until April. The Golden 
jSTonpareil is a handsome-looking fruit, keeping until 
Pebruary. The Scarlet jS; onpareil is very handsome, and 
lasts until March ; and the Pitmaston Nonpareil is ex- 
cellent, and lasts until Pebruary. 

The Calville Blanche is the most delicious of all apples 
in rich and peculiar delicacy of flavour : most decidedly no 
cultivator capable of appreciating superior first-class fruit 
should allow his garden to be without this excellent apple. 
The fruit is large, with broad, irregular ribs from the 
crown downwards ; the skin is delicate, smooth, and 
polished ; the colour whitish-green, turning to yellow 
when it ripens, and tinged with bright red on the sunny 
side. The flesh is white, tender, and sufficiently juicy, 
with a peculiarly delicate and delicious flavour. The 
eye is small, in a deep, angular basin ; and the stalk is of 



ElEEPIKG APPLES. 



101 



medium length, slender, and deeply inserted. It is a 
first-rate eating apple from about Christmas until 
April. It is also excellent for cooking, but seems too 
good for that purpose. The tree grows well, and is a 
middling bearer. It has several other names : Bonnet 
Carre, Winter "White Calville, and Calville Blanche 
d'Hiver. 

The Court of Wick is a very nice little apple, which 
is said to have sprung from a seedling from the Golden 
Pippin, and is well worth cultivating. The fruit is 
nearly double the size of the Golden Pippin, round and 
regular in shape, a little flattened at both ends, greenish- 
yellow, but bright orange with small russet spots where 
exposed to the sun. The flesh is yellowish, mixed with 
green, crisp, tender, juicy, and high-flavoured when fully 
ripe. The eye is large and very open, in a shallow 
basin, and the stalk is short and slender. It is a very 
pretty dessert apple from October to April. Other 
names are Fry's Pippin, Golden Drop, Court de Wick, 
Knightwick Pippin, Phillips's Eeinette, Wood's Hunt- 
ingdon, and Wood's Transparent Pippin. The original 
tree was raised at Court de Wick, in Somersetshire, and 
it is quite a favourite in the West country. The trees 
grow well, and are hardy, bearing abundantly within 
the influence of the sharp blasts from the Welsh 
mountains, and ripening in such situations better than 
most kinds. It is an eating apple. 

The Eibston Pippin is a splendid apple, both in 
beauty and flavour, which no garden should be without. 
It is of middle size, rather wider than deep, a little 
irregularly shaped, and slightly flattened at the ends. 
The colour is bright yellow, russety about the crown 
and stalk, faintly marked with red streaks round, which 
become deep and glowing on the sunny side. The eye 
is small, with a closed calyx, in a rather open, slightly 
plaited basin, and the stalk is short and knobby, set in a 
very slightly plaited cavity, and not projecting so far as 
the base of the fruit. The flesh is firm, crisp, tinted 
yellow, sweet and rich in a peculiar and delicious 



102 THE OECHARD AND PETJIT aARDE]S^. 



aromatic flavour, with just sufficient piquancy. It is a 
most delicious and handsome-looking dessert apple; it 
should be gathered in Octoberj and will keep until 
March or April, but is ill its greatest perfection about 
Christmas, or rather sooner. I do not think it is a A^ery 
abundant bearer, but it is such a superior apple that no 
garden should be without it. So popular an apple is 
sure to have many names: it is called Glory of York 
(Eibston Hall, where the seedling was grown, is at 
Xnaresborough, in Yorkshire), Formosa Pippin, Traver's, 
and Traver's Apple. 

The Grolden Eeinette is a nice, and nice-looking apple, 
below the middle size, round, regular in the outline, 
flattened at the ends, greenish-yellow, smooth in the 
skin, and a little ruddy on the sunny side. The flesh 
is pale yellow, firm, crisp, sweet, and rich in flavour. 
It is a nice dessert apple from October to rebruary. 
The trees grow well and bear well. This apple is 
popular in the London markets, and a tree of it 
deserves a place in the garden. Other names for it are 
Aurore, Yellow German Eeinette, English Pippin, 
Eirke's Golden Pippin, and "Wyker Pippin. 

Supposing a garden has room for only six trees, I 
should choose no early apple at all, but depend on 
buying at the time when all fruit is comparatively cheap 
and good. Alfriston for cooking, and Beauty of Kent, 
or Emperor Alexander, and Nonesuch ; or, if in a warm, 
favourable locality. Golden Pippin, for eating, would 
carry on the supply to Christmas, and three good 
keeping kinds might go on to the end of the season. 
Three better could scarcely be chosen than Blenheim. 
Orange, Eeinette de Canada, and Calville Blanche, or 
Eibston Pippin. If space can be found for a few others, 
choose Golden JSToble, Beauty of Kent, and, as one good 
early sort, the Irish Peach Apple. 

Mr. Elvers, in his useful little book, " The Miniature 
Eruit Garden," gives the following twenty good sorts as 
calculated for dwarf culture on the Paradise or Douciu 
stock. 



KEEPiya APPLES. 103 

Twenty dessert apples, ripening from July to June, 
placed in the order of tlieir ripening : — 



1. White Joanneting, or Jun- 

eating. 

2. Early Red Margaret. 

3. Red Astrachan. 

4. Early Slra'^berry. 

5. Irish Peach. 

6. Summer Golden Pippin. 

7. Kerry Pippin. 
S. Margil. 

9. Ribston Pippin. 
10. Cox's Orange Pippin. 



11. ]\Iannington Pearmain, or 

Mannington Grolden Pippin. 

12. Golden Drop (Coe's). 

13. Ashmead's Kernel. 

14. Old ]S"onpareil. 

15. Reinette Yan Mona. 

16. Syke House Russet. 

17. Kedd lest one Pippin. 

18. Golden Harvey. 

19. Winter Peach Apple. 

20. Strum Tier Pippin, 



IVIr. Elvers especially recommends Xos. 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 
12, 13, 15, and 20. 

The early Eed Margaret, or Eed Juneating, is a 
nice apple, but it soon becomes mealy. The Eed 
Astrachan is a s^eet, juicy little apple, but it, too, soon 
becomes mealy. The Summer, or early Stra\Yberry, 
ripens in September. The Kerry Pippin bears well, 
ripens in September, and lasts until November : it is a 
medium-sized apple. Margil is a nice-flavoured, small 
apple, keeping until after Christmas. Cox's Orange 
Pippin is a good sort, and lasts until Pebruary. The 
Pearmains are useful apples ; Mannington's lasts until 
May. Ashmead's Kernel is a nice apple, not unlike the 
Old ]^onpareil, and it lasts Avell, keeping good until 
May. Syke House Eusset is good, and keeps until 
Pebruary. •The Golden Harvey, or Brandy Apple, is a 
nice-flavoured, small apple, which keeps until about 
June : the tree is hardy and bears well. The Sturmer 
Pippin is brisk-flavoured, and keeps until June. 

I wiU also quote Mr. Eivers's valuable list of twenty 
cooking apples, fit for use from July to June : — 



1. Keswick Codlin. 

2. Large Yellow Bough. 

3. Hawthornden. 

4. Cellini. 

5. King of the Pippins. 



6. Blenheim Pippin, or Orange. 

7. Calville Blanche. 

8. Kew Hawthornden. 

9. .Striped Beefin. 

10. "Waltham Abbey Seedling. 



104 



THE OBCHAED A^s^D rEUIT GAEDE^T. 



11. Herefordshire Pearmain. 

12. Winter Pearmain, 

13. Bedfordshire Foundling. 

14. Greave's Pippin. 

15. Dumelow's Seedling. 



16. Forge Apple. 

17. Rymer. 

18. Baxter's Pearmain. 

19. St. Sauveur. 

20. Groosebeny Apple. 



Mr. Eivers especially recommends Nos. 1, 3, 6, 9, 11^ 
13, 15, 18, 19, and 20. 

Cellini is a good apple, fit to use in October. Blen- 
heim Pippin is the same as Blenheim Orange. The 
"Waltham Abbey Seedling is a large, handsome apple, 
useful from September to January. It is yellow and 
showy, a little like the Golden jN'oble. The Bedford- 
shire Poundlmg, or Cambridge Pippin, is another large, 
handsome apple, which keeps until March. Dumelow's 
Seedling is the AVellington Apple. The Porge Apple 
keeps until March. Eymer is a Yorkshire variety, 
in use in ]N"oYember and December : it is a good size, 
yellow, and good in flavour, and becomes very rich in 
baking. The Grooseberry Apple, or Gooseberry Pippin, 
is excellent for keeping, having been kept until 
August. 

Apple trees grown as bushes are so ornamental, 
the fruit on them is so safe from high wind, the trees 
are so easy to cultivate, and the fruit so easy to gather, 
so completely under control, that little more need be 
said in their favour. None, too, who can appreciate good 
fruit of fine flavour should grow indifl'erent apples, as it 
must never be forgotten that trees of first-class kinds 
take no more room, and give no more trouble in their 
cultivation, than the most indifl'erent cider apples. 

Even for cider, the best judges declare that apples of 
the finest sorts are best. The Golden Pippin has 
always in the "West country been most esteemed as a 
cider apple. The Orange Pippin, a middle-sized, round, 
handsome, bright-coloured apple, is a great favourite in 
Herefordshire as a cider, and also as an eating apple. 
The flesh is yellow, and the pulp gives a fine golden 
tint to the cider ; besides that, the fruit is excellent in 
flavour. The Golden Harvey, or Brandy Apple, is said 



ALMOIS-DS. 



105 



to give great streDgtb to cider, but not much richness. 
The Downton Pippin, and other descendants of the old 
Golden Pippin, are good cider apples. There are many 
varieties of cider apples, some of which have been 
known for hundreds of years. 



CHAPTEE XYII. 

ALMOXDS. 

I SAT a few words on the almond because it is of the 
family of some of our choicest fruit, the peach and its 
varieties ; but it is scarcely a tree to be cultivated in 
our country for its fruit, although the bitter almond ia 
its outer covering is sometimes used for tarts. It will, 
with us, bring fruit to perfection on w^alls, in w^arm, 
sheltered spots. As an ornamental tree it is gay and 
beautiful at an early season, when such beauty and 
sweetness have double value. The almond is a native 
of Barbary, and is cultivated for its fruit in the south 
of Prance, Spain, Italy, and the Levant. It is pro- 
pagated by budding on seedling plum stocks, and will 
produce if subjected to the same management as the 
peach. 

If almonds in England produce nuts which are worth 
saving, they must be thoroughly dried on boards or 
shelves, with dry air playing over them, that they may 
not get mouldy when put by. They may then be stored 
in dry sand nntil they are wanted. They are nice in 
flavour, but I believe never so fine, nor so good, as 
those which are brought from abroad. 

The Common Almond, Amande commune of Prench 
growers, is common in Prance, and the young trees are 
nsed as stocks for budding with peaches. The nuts are 
about an inch and a quarter long, with a hard, smooth 
shell, and a kernel which is not very fine or good. 

The Amande Douce a coqiie diir^ or Hard-shelled Sweet 
Almond, is an improved variety of it, inasmuch as the 



106 THE OECHAED AND EEUIT GAEDEN. 



nut is larger ; it is also much better for stocks for 
peaclies, and is liked in France for that purpose. The 
nuts are an inch and a half long, dull in colour, and 
thick and hard in the shell ; the kernels are small and 
not fine-flavoured. 

The Amande Douce a coque tendre, or Soft-shelled 
Sweet Almond, is budded on the others, and is grown in 
the gardens in Prance, and eaten newly gathered in 
July. The kernel is sweet and nice in flavour. The 
shell is something like the coque dur in look and colour, 
but it is soft; one side is often flat and the other 
rounded. 

The Ainande des Dames, or Ladies' Almond, has a soft, 
light- coloured, porous shell, with a plump, rich, sweet 
kernel, more than an inch long. This is dried before 
it is eaten, and it is cultivated in the south of France 
as an article of commerce. 

The Amande Sultana, or Sultana Almond, is like the 
Ladies' Almond, only smaller. The Amande Distaclie is 
similar, but smaller still. Eoth these are to be found 
in the south of Trance, but they are not generally 
cultivated. 

The Amande Princesse is like the Amande des Dames, 
but the shell is thinner, and rough on the surface, 
looking as if the outer part had been taken ofl*. 

Of the Amande Amere, or Bitter Almond, there are 
several varieties. The nuts difl'er in size, but they are 
all dark in colour, hard in the shell, and with a peculiarly 
fine flavour of bitter in the kernel. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

APEICOTS. 

It^" choosing the young trees care must be taken that 
the stock and scion join healthily and completely; 
reject those in which there is an appearance of escape 
of sap, whether they have been grafted or budded at 



APEICOTS. 



107 



home, or are purchased in a nursery. The little trees 
should have been trained three years, or two at the 
least, and they should have an equal growth, a centre 
shoot, and not less than two from each side, of about 
equal thickness, length, and strength. The Brompton 
stock is not good, neither is the Brussels, unless to 
make trees for covering high walls. If you have stocks 
and wish to bud them, getting well-grown trees is only 
a work of time, and the training can be taken in hand 
very early. The stocks may be from the apricot or 
plum, or a kind of wild plum, sold for the purpose. 
For dwarf trees bud eight inches above the ground, for 
half-standards bud at three feet, and for standards at 
five feet. 

The best soil for apricots is a good, sound, unctuous 
loam, with a mixture of vegetable mould, but use no 
manure, except on the surface, in the form of occasional 
mulching. Eighteen inches is sufficient depth of soil. 

In warm situations far south, east and west are the 
aspects which often produce the finest apricots, as a 
hol'ter place is apt to make the fruit mealy ; but in cooler 
localities, in the north, or even as far south as London, 
a south wall is best. In warm, sheltered localities 
standards may be grown, and the fruit on them is often 
abundant and fine in flavour; but the trees are long 
before they bear, and the fruit, of course, smaller. 

Mr. Elvers states that the small Alberge Apricot, 
raised from the stone, makes a capital pyramid, pro- 
ducing small but highly flavoured fruit ; and that the 
Breda also does well for the same training, if lifted or 
planted biennially. 

An apricot may be trained as a fan, or with the 
branches spread out horizontally. 

For training fan-like the tree should, to begin with, 
have a centre shoot, and two or three side-shoots on each 
side. J Train the centre shoot straight upright, the two 
lowest quite horizontally, and those above them in a 
slanting direction. 

Horizontal training is more exact and handsome in 
appearance. The centre branch is quite upright, and the 



108 



THE OECHAED A]S"D TEriT GAEDEIS-. 



lateral branches are perfectly horizontal, alternate, and 
parallel with each other. 

The following winter the branches must be shortened 
to six inches, and they will give three shoots each, which 
in May or June may be trained in, six inches apart from 
each other ; all unnecessary shoots must then be re- 
moved, and in after years the same cutting back and 
training in must be pursued. Pruning must be regulated 
by the fact that the apricot bears on the last year's 
shoots. The Moor Park only produces mostly on two 
or three years' old spurs. 

The summer pruning of apricots should begin in 
May, by nipping off all the young shoots that point out- 
wards, or that are irregular or misplaced. These should 
not on any account be torn off roughly or carelessly, 
but taken off with a sharp thumb-nail or knife, with a 
clean, neat cut, down to the branch, but not close enough 
to it to injure the bark. Over-vigorous shoots may be 
stopped in June, and so induced to put out fertile 
laterals. 

Winter pruning had better be done when the leaves 
have fallen, although any time before March will do. 
Avoid amputation of large limbs, but cut out naked 
shoots, and get their places filled by good young branches. 
Leave a leading shoot at the end of each branch, and 
shorten vigorous young shoots back to the good, well- 
ripened wood, cutting away the unripened spray. This 
is done to encourage laterals for future fruiting, and to 
give sap to the bloom-buds. Cut off gross, out-standing 
spurs, but lateral spurs may be left: they sometimes 
produce blossom-buds, almost always doing so in the 
Moor Park apricot. All decayed or imperfect bits 
should, of course, be pruned. 

The fruit should be thinned as soon as it is large 
enough to be used for tarts, which will be in May, or 
early in June. The thinning may be done twice, and, 
after the second time, the apricots should be about five 
inches apart. 

Since the apricot flowers in March,-- and sometimes 
even earlier still, the bloom often wants protection, or the 



APEICOTS. 



109 



whole crop is lost. As much watchful care is necessary 
to remove protection when it is not needed as to give it 
when it is. Different materials have been already spoken 
of; and if none of them are at hand, fronds of fern, 
branches of spruce-fir, or wisps of straw may be used. 

Although manuring to encourage a too rampant 
growth must be avoided, a little good mulching, when 
the fruit is swelling, in May, and liquid manure when it 
is making its last growth, will do good. 

The Moor Park apricot in some localities is very sub- 
ject to canker. If the tree is old, little can be done for 
it ; in fact, when an apricot tree gets much diseased, it 
is generally most profitable to replace it with a young 
one ; but canker may be prevented by taking up a young 
tree when it has been trained three or four years, pruning 
off* the roots which are inclined to shoot downwards, 
replanting it and spreading the other roots horizontally, 
taking care that the part which has been budded be kept 
six or eight inches above the surface of the ground. The 
fruit should be gathered before it is quite ripe, or it 
becomes mealy. 

The Masculine, Eed Masculine, Brown Masculine, 
Abricot [N'atif Musque, or early Masculine, is the best early 
apricot, ripening the middle or end of July. It was 
once known to ripen even in May under favourable 
circumstances ; but the tree is tender, and requires a 
south or south-east aspect, and a warm, sheltered 
situation. If it has not these advantages the crop is 
not good, but if well placed it does well, and it is the 
earliest apricot we have. The fruit is round and small, 
yellow tinted, wdth red on one side ; sweet, rather musky 
in flavour, and juicy. The shape is a little irregular, 
the suture rather deep, the stone thick and smooth, 
separating easily from the flesh, and bitter in the kernel. 
The White Masculine is similar in character. 

The large early Precoce, Grros Precoce, Abricot de St. 
Jean, St. Jean Eouge, or xlbricot Gros d'Alexandrie, 
ripens next. In France it is ripe at midsummer, whence 
its name of St. Jean. The fruit is oblong, with a deep 
suture, a downy, orange-coloured skin, and spots of red 



110 



THE ORCHAED AKD rUTJIT GAEDE^q-. 



on tlie sunny side. The stone is brown, flattened oval, 
sharp in front, perforated along the back, and with 
a bitter kernel. 

The Blenheim, Shipley's, or Miss Shipley's, is not so 
fine in flavour as the Moor Park, but it is tolerably rich, 
an excellent bearer, and a most useful apricot, ripening 
well. The fruit is oval, of medium size, and pale yellow 
colour. It is allied to the Moor Park. 

The Hemskirke is also similar to the Moor Park in 
character, but it is earlier, and ripens with more cer- 
tainty. It is ready the end of July or the beginning of 
August, and will do on an east wall. The fruit is middle- 
sized, roundish, rather flattened at the crown, orange 
and red in colour, clear orange in the flesh, tender, 
juicy, and peculiarly rich and delicate in flavour, like a 
fine greengage plum. The stone is rather small, and 
the kernel rather sweet. 

The Breda is excellent for preserving, and the tree 
does well as a standard in the Southern counties. The 
fruit is small, inclined to be a little angular in shape, 
brownish-orange in colour, and rich in flavour. The 
stone is small, roundish, parts readily from the fruit, 
and the kernel is sweet, on which account this apricot 
is called in Prance Amande Aveline. On walls, it ripens 
the beginning or end of August, and lasts beyond 
that time on standards. It bears well as a standard, 
and is a capital apricot. The fruit of the Brussels 
apricot has a good brisk flavour ; it is distinct from the 
Breda, especially in the kernel being bitter. 

The Eoyal is a fine rich-flavoured apricot, which 
ripens in August, a week or ten days before the Moor 
Park. The fruit is oval, slightly compressed, dullish 
yellow, with a little red, a shallow suture, and orange- 
coloured flesh, which is sweet, juicy, and high-flavoured, 
with a slight degree of acidity. The stone is large, oval, 
blunt at the ends, detached from the flesh, and rather 
bitter. It is also called Eoyal George and Abricot 
Eoyale. 

The Moor Park is the most celebrated and popular of 
all kinds. Other names for it are Anson's, Dunmore's, 



PEACHES. 



Ill 



and Temple's ; it is juicy, excellent in flavour, very large, 
and ripens the end of August or beginning of Sep- 
tember. The fruit is large and roundish, hollow at the 
base, compressed at the sides, and rather larger on one 
side than the other. It is pale yellow, shading to orange, 
and marbled, with brownish-red on the sunny side, 
interspersed with dark specks. The flesh is orange- 
coloured and firm. The stone is rugged. There is a 
passage through the stone, which may be easily detected 
by passing a needle through it in at a small hole in the 
groove on one side, and the kernel is bitter. 

jSTo garden of choice fruit should be without the 
Moor Park, but the Blenheim is a fine, large, profitable 
tree to have, very hardy, and a certain bearer. The 
Orange is a good bearer, very fine for preserving, with 
a sweet kernel; it ripens in August. The Peach 
apricot is very much like the Moor Park. The Eoman 
is most common in our gardens, popular from being 
hardy and a plentiful bearer ; the fruit is best when not 
fully ripe ; the kernel is bitter. The Turkey is another 
good variety ; it has a sweet kernel. The Kaisha is a 
Syrian kind, which is delicious ; it also has a sweet 
kernel; and the Musch-Musch is the sweetest of all 
apricots. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

PEi^HES. 

The main requisites for peaches and nectarines are a 
stifi', loamy soil, and plenty of warmth and sunshine. 
In a season which is deficient in sunshine, our wall 
fruit will never be fine, however great the pains bestowed 
on their culture. Our late, chilly springs, too, are very 
detrimental to good crops in cutting ofi" the bloom with 
frost, hail, or bitter biting wind, at the time the fruit 
should set. 

These fruits, to do pretty well, miost have a sound, 



112 THE ORCHAED ERUIT GAEDEK. 

dry subsoil, and the borders for them must not be too 
deep, too damp, nor too rich. If the subsoil be not dry, 
it must be made so bj draining. The bed for the trees 
may be two feet deep in earth, six feet wide before a 
wall which is about ten feet high, and eight feet wide 
if the wall be higher. Many good judges recommend 
that these borders should not be cropped ; it is at any 
rate imperative to place upon them no deep-rooting 
crop, nor any that would require a degree of working 
of the soil which might injure the roots of the trees. 
If the locality be high and dry, the bed may be raised 
eight inches above the gravel path ; if low and damp, 
one foot, and in very cold parts it may be yet more 
raised. A good, sound, slightly adhesive hazel loam 
is the best soil ; this is a rich soil of a brown or hazel 
colour, from the admixture of decayed vegetable matter, 
and it requires no addition of manure, but a third part 
of good dark garden mould may be incorporated with 
it, and half that quantity of leaf-mould. If the subsoil 
is not favourable, it is best to plant on stations, as 
before described. The trees may have a top-dressing 
of manure every May. 

Mr. Rivers recommends the following preparation of 
a peach border in light, poor localities : — Make a com- 
post of equal parts of rotten manure and tenacious 
loam or clay, and spread it over the surface five inches 
thick, if the soil be poor and exhausted, or if it be an 
old garden, and four inches if the border be new, or 
rich with manure. 

Stir the bed to the depth of two feet, mixing in the 
compost thoroughly. The trees may be planted during 
the winter, and in March, in dry weather, the border 
all over its surface should be thoroughly rammed down 
with a wooden rammer, so as to make it like a well- 
trodden path ; some light, half-rotten manure — say from 
one to two inches in depth — may then be spread over it, 
and the operation is complete. This border must never 
be disturbed, except with the hoe, to destroy weeds, 
and, of course, never cropped : every succeeding spring, 
in dry weather, the ramming and dressing must be 



PEACHES. 



113 



repeated, as the soil is always mucli loosened by frost. 
If this method be followed, peaches and nectarines may 
be made to flourish in our dry Southern counties, where 
they have hitherto brought nothing but disappointment. 
Any plan Yvhich will make wall fruit flourish on a dis- 
appointing light soil is most valuable. 

Peaches and nectarines should be budded upon 
muscle or pear-plum stocks. The young stocks should 
be planted out in the nursery three feet apart, in rows 
four feet apart, and good, clean, healthy little trees 
should be chosen. The muscle stock may be budded 
the year after it is planted out, when the stem seldom 
exceeds two inches in circumference ; and if it be 
smaller than that, so much the better. The pear-plum 
stocks may be budded the second year after they are 
planted out, as they are seldom thick enough the first 
year. 

Most wall fruit trees are wanted for training. Choose 
maiden plants,, or young trees which have not been cut 
back, and bud them in July. Put in the bud in front, 
pointing outwards, about six inches above the ground, 
and it will remain dormant until the following spring. 
Then cut ofi" the head of the stock close above the bud, 
taking care that the cut is made clean, and slanting from 
the front towards the back. Some gardeners paint over 
the cut with white lead, or similar mixture, to exclude 
wet and air. During the summer the bud will produce 
a long shoot. The following spring it must be cut 
back to five or six inches lono:, leavinoj five or seven 
eyes. This summer the shoots must be carefully trained, 
and kept free from insects, and in the autumn the tree 
may be planted against a wall, in the place where it is 
to remain. If preferred, the stock may be planted 
against the wall before it is budded. 

The Americans are said to use stocks raised from the 
peach-stone ; but their trees do not appear to be lasting. 
The stones may be dried and sown in the autumn, either 
with or without heat. When they shoot, care must be 
taken to preserve them from the mice ; and when the 
young trees are pretty well grown, they may be planted 

I 



114 THE OECHAED A2sD FEUIT GAEDEK. 

out, and tlieir after-treatment must be the same as that 
of other stocks. 

In the management of peach and nectarine trees, the 
important thing to be held in view is to keep up a con- 
stant succession of young wood all over the tree. 

For the winter pruning, every shoot should be short- 
ened in proportion to its strength, cutting back to where 
the wood is well ripened, which may be judged by its 
colour aDd general character. By this the pithy and 
unripened wood is taken away. 

To do well for the tree for the following year, the best 
young shoots only must be spared, and they must not be 
left too crowded, bat at a fair and regular distance each 
one from its neighbours. Trees which have arrived at 
bearing age may have the strongest bearing shoots short- 
ened to about twelve inches in length, those of medium 
strength to about ten, and the weaker shoots to four or 
six, pruning them to a treble eye, i. e., two fruit or short, 
thick buds, one on each side of a wood, or thin, sharp- 
pointed bud. Shoots which have no fruit-buds may 
be pruned to a wood-bud. Shoots that have been allowed 
to become too crowded must be thinned out^ The trees 
should afterwards be trained, and this should be finished 
by Pebruary. 

In pruning, always let the slanting cut be towards 
the wall, where it will be sheltered from sun and wet ; 
whereas if it face forwards it looks badly, the sun cracks 
it, and the rain beats into it. For this reason the cut 
should always face backwards or downwards. 

May is the time for beginning disbudding or summer 
pruning. With a small-bladed, sharp knife, cut off all 
shoots which tend forwards and backwards, except in the 
case of one here or there which, in spite of its awkward 
position, may be wanted to fill a vacancy ; and take care 
not to go near enough to the tree to injure it. A few 
of them may be left with two or three leaves each, to 
furnish foliage for sheltering the fruit. When the shoots 
grow long enough, train the leading shoots to the wall, 
and select a sufficient number of side-sboots, low down, 
on the stronger branches, and train them in also at 



PEACHES. 



115 



regular distances, carefully avoiding crowding. In the 
centre and lower part of the tree there may be room for 
but one side-shoot of each branch, as well as the leading 
shoot, but with the strong branches near the extremi- 
ties two may sometimes be trained in. 

If the winter pruning hare left room enough, it is a 
better plan to cultivate two shoots from each main shoot, 
one, low down, on each side, by which means a good 
supply of young wood can be kept up. "When strong 
shoots throw out laterals, it may be best to shorten, not 
to cut them off close, as it sometimes happens that two 
such laterals advantageously supply the place of the 
centre branch, and become two fruitful branches in place 
of one barren one. Extraordinarily vigorous young 
shoots should be cut out, unless they are positively 
required to fill up a vacancy on the wall. In summer 
pruning, take care to leave no more shoots than will be 
wanted as young wood for the next year : all crowded 
growth and interlacing of redundancies are mischievous. 

To prevent injury from wind, nail in all the shoots 
which are intended to remain as soon as they are about 
six inches long, and continue to do so from time to time, 
as needful. 

It is advantageous to disbud or pinch in at separate 
times: first in May, pinching or cutting off front and 
back shoots. A few weeks later, most of the apparently 
useless shoots may go ; and a little later still, the last 
pinching may be attended to with discriminating selec- 
tion, sparing a good allowance of the lowest-placed, 
young, healthy shoots, as likely to carry on a succession 
of bearing wood. All the disbudding should be com- 
pleted by about midsummer. 

Protection of the bloom, has been already spoken of in 
Chapters VII. and XVII. It is generally required in 
our climate. 

Thinning the fruit is necessary in all but very bad 
seasons indeed. It is best done at several times, and it 
must be managed with great caution, not to disturb, in 
the slightest degree, the fruit which remains, and also 
not to thin out too liberally at one time ; for it some- 

I 2 



116 THE OECHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 



times liappens, after an over-liberal thinning, that acci- 
dent clears the rest of the crop. The first thinning may- 
be done with care when the fruit is the size of a hazel- 
nut, the next when it is as large as a walnut (then they 
are nice in tarts), and the third and last when the stone 
is hard. 

Prench cultivators have divided peaches and necta- 
rines into four classes : — Feches, with downy skins, and 
flesh separating easily from the stone; Pavies, with 
downy skins, and flesh adhering to the stone ; JPeches- 
violettes, with smooth skins, and flesh separating from 
the stone ; and Brugnons, with smooth skins, and flesh 
adhering to the stone ; the two first we call peaches, the 
two last nectarines. English cultivators have made 
more elaborate divisions, but to enter into them would 
be of little use to the cultivator on a small scale. 

Peaches may be grown as standards in warm localities^ 
well sheltered from east and strong westerly winds ; the 
fruit often ripens tolerably, and is very nice in fiavour. 



CHAPTER XX. 

VARIETIES OE PEACHES. 

A SELECTION may be made for keeping up a supply from 
August until the end of October, or even rather later. 

Early Anne is a sweet, juicy, well-flavoured peach, a 
little musky, round, and rather below the middle size. It 
is whitish, with a little colour on the sunny side, and the 
flesh is tender, melting, and white to the stone, from 
which it separates readily. The leaves are doubly ser- 
rated, and without glands ; and the bloom is large and 
very pale in colour. It is ripe the beginning and middle 
of August, and it will do on an east wall. Another 
name for it is White Avant. 

The Early York is an excellent early peach ; the fruit 
is greenish- white, and it is in use from the beginning to 
the end of August. 



YARIETIES or PEACHES. 



117 



Acton Scot is a handsome and excellent peach. 
Although the fruit is rather below the middle size, it is 
sweet and pretty good in flavour. The fruit is narrowed 
and depressed at the apex, rather woolly in the skin, 
pale yellow, with mottling of bright red on the sunny 
side, and the flesh is melting, and yellowish- white to the 
stone, from which it separates readily. It is fuller on 
one side than on the other^ and the suture is shallow. 
It is ripe the end of August and beginning of Sep- 
tember. It is said to have been raised from Noblesse, 
crossed with Eed IS'utmeg, a small, hardy, very early 
peach. 

Early Admirable is scarcely well named early, as it is 
less early than some others. The fruit is nearly round, 
above the middle size, juicy, and well-flavoured. It is 
yellowish-white, with a beautiful red cheek, and the 
flesh is white, getting red at the stone, from which it 
separates easily. It usually ripens in September, but it 
has been known to ripen in August. The leaves are 
crenate, with globose glands, and the flowers pale red, 
and of medium size. 

The Late Admirable is one of our best kinds, with 
large, somewhat oval fruit, which is juicy and high- 
flavoured, with delicate, melting, greenish-tinted flesh, 
turning to red near the stone, from which it separates 
easily. The suture is deep, the shape regular and a 
little depressed on the summit, where there is generally 
a small, pointed nipple. The colour is palish-green or 
yellow, with streaky red on the sunny side. The leaves 
are crenate, with globose glands, and the tree bears small 
red flowers. It is hardy, and most deserving of a place 
in any garden, but it does best on a south or south-east 
wall. E/oyale is another of its names. 

The Grrosse Mignonne is a hardy, good sort, which 
keeps very well. The fruit is large, hollowed at the 
summit, larger on one side than on the other, juicy, 
melting, and with a rich, pleasant flavour. The suture 
is of medium depth, the skin not very downy, mottled 
with red on a yellow ground, and deepening to a full 
red on the sunny side. The flesh is pale yellow, with 



118 



THE ORCHAED AT^D PKTJIT aAEDEJf. 



red streaks near the stone, from which it separates 
freely, and the stone is small, ovate, and very rough. 
The leaves are crenate, with globose glands, and the 
flowers deep-coloured and large. It is ripe the end of 
August and beginning of September. The name of 
Mignonne is said to have been given to it by one of the 
kings of France on account of its excellence ; others 
are Grimwood's Eoyal George, Large French Mignonne, 
Padley's Early Purple, Eoyal Kensington, Yeloutee de 
Merlet, and Vineuse, 

The Eoyal George is a good peach, above the 
medium size, round, juicy, rich, and fine-flavoured. 
The colour is yellowish-white, speckled with red, and 
deeply marbled with red on the sunny side. The 
suture is deep, especially near the apex, the flesh 
melting, yellowish-white, red round the stone, and 
separating from it. The stone is ovate, and slightly 
furrowed, the leaves of the tree doubly serrated, without 
glands, and the flowers small. It is ripe the end of 
August and beginning of September, and should have a 
place in every garden. Other names by which it is 
known are Millet's Mignonne, French Chancellor, and 
Early Eoyal George. It is a good sort for forcing, but 
in cold, wet seasons it is subject to mildew, and should 
therefore be planted on a dry soil, in a warm, sheltered 
spot. It is inaccurately called Eed Magdalen. 

Barrington is an excellent, rather large, and very 
handsome peach, a little elongated in form, and some- 
what pointed at the summit. It is melting, juicy, and 
very rich in flavour. The colour is pale yellowish-green, 
turning to deep marbled red on the sunny side. The 
suture is moderately deep along one side, and the flesh 
is yellowish- white, a little streaked with crimson round 
the stone. The stone parts from the flesh, and is of 
medium size, ovate, with a sharp point ; it is very rough 
and dark-coloured. The fruit is ripe by the middle 
of September, and is very handsome in appearance. 
Another name for it is Buckingham Mignonne. 

The Bellegarde, or Violette Hative^ is a delicious 
peach, of very good size, round, regular, and handsome in 



YAEIETIES OP PEACHES. 



119 



form and appearance. It is very melting, juicy, and rich- 
flavoured ; in colour, pale green, tinged with yellow, 
and deep, rich crimson on the sunny side. The flesh is 
pale yellow, a little streaked with red round the stone, 
which comes away freely, and is rather large and pointed. 
The suture is shallow, and the apex hollowed, with a 
little projecting point in the centre. The leaves are 
crenate, with globose glands. Like all extensive 
favourites, it has many synonymes, Galande, Large 
Violet, Early Galande, and Noire de Montreuil. It is 
ripe the beginning and middle of September, and it is a 
good sort for forcing. 

Smith's ^fewington is a very good medium-sized peach, 
rather oval in shape, narrowing at the apex, and largest 
on one side. It is a firm, nice-flavoured peach ; in 
colour, pale yellow or straw-coloured, with a bright 
dark-red cheek ; and the flesh is pale yellow, turning red 
near the stone, to which the flesh adheres firmly. The 
leaves are doubly serrated, without glands, and the bloom 
is large and pale-coloured. Other names for it are Early 
jSTewington and Smith's Early jS'ewington. It ripens 
early in September. 

Noblesse is one of the best either for forcing or for 
the open wall. The fruit is large, rather oblong, 
narrower at the apex, where it has an acute nipple. 
It is very juicy, rich, and high-flavoured ; not very 
downy, pale yellowish-green, but streaked and blotched 
with dull red towards the sun ; the flesh is melting, 
and yellowish-white throughout. The stone is large, 
obovate, and pointed, and separates readily from the 
flesh. The leaves are doubly serrated, without glands, 
and the bloom is large and pale blush-coloured. It 
is one of our best early peaches, and ripens late in 
August and early in September. It is the same as 
Mellish's Eavourite, but it difl'ers from V anguard, with 
which it is often confused, that being of a taller growth 
than Noblesse ; the fruit, too, is more globular, with 
the apex depressed. The peaches are, however, of 
about equal merit. 

Chancellor is a large oval peach, with a very distinct 



120 THE OECHAED AJ^J) FEUIT GAEDEI?". 



suture, and a cavitj at the base ; it is not very downy ; 
tlie colour is pale yellow, and dark crimson on the sunny 
side, and the flavour is Yevj rich and fine. The flesh is 
yellow, turning very red round the stone. The stone is 
oblong, tapering to a point, and it separates from the 
flesh easily. It ripens the middle of September. The 
leaves are crenate, with reniform glands, and the flower 
is small and full- coloured. 

The Eed Magdalen is a first-rate, rather small peach, 
globular, but a little flattened, deeply cleft on one side, 
red in colour, juicy, rich and fine in flavour. The flesh 
is white, becoming a little red at the stone, which is 
blunt, rather large in proportion to the fruit, and 
separates readily. The leaves are doubly serrated, with- 
out glands, and the bloom large and pale-coloured. It 
is ripe the end of August and beginning of September. 
No collection should be without the real Eed Magdalen : 
other names for it are Madeleine de Courson, Madeleine 
Eouge, and Eouge Paysanne. 

The E/oyal Charlotte is another excellent sort, with fruit 
above the middle size, rather narrow at the apex, larger 
on one side than on the other, pale greenish- white, with 
a full deep-red cheek, juicy, rich, and fine-flavoured. 
The flesh is greenish- white, turning to pale red near the 
stone, which separates easily from the flesh. The leaves 
are doubly serrated, without glands, and the bloom is of 
medium size, and deep-coloured. It is ripe early in 
September. It is also called Early Purple Kew, and 
New Eoyal Charlotte. 

Teton de Venus is a large peach, rather deeper than 
wide, with a wide deep suture from base to apex, a 
cavity at the base, and at the apex a broad obtuse 
nipple. It is sweet and excellent in flavour, pale 
greenish-yellow, with lively red on the sunny side, and 
the flesh is melting, greenisb -yellow in colour, turning 
red at the stone, from which it separates. The leaves 
are deeply crenate, with globose glands, and are rather 
puckered on each side the midrib. The flowers are 
small, pale rose-coloured, edged with carmine. It is ripe 
the end of September. 



VAEIETIES or PEACHES. 



121 



Walberton Admirable is one of the very best late 
peaches, ripening the end of September and beginning 
of Octoberc The fruit is pale yellow and red. 

The Salway is another very excellent late variety, 
ripening the end of October or beginning of November. 
The fruit is dark orange. 

These varieties, which I name suggestively, will offer 
sufficient choice for almost any private garden ; and I 
think they are all kinds which may be obtained without 
difficulty from any good nursery. If the space be 
limited, it may be best to have an early and a late peach, 
and to choose the remainder from the best of those which 
ripen in September. 

The Eed Xutmeg, or Avant Peche Eouge, is the 
earliest hardy peach of any, as it ripens the end of 
July. The fruit is small and sweet, with a little musky 
taste : it is nice-flavoured just as it ripens, but in a very 
little time it becomes very poor. The Malta, Belle de 
Paris, or Italian peach, is good and hardy : in Nor- 
mandy it does well as a standard : the flavour is very 
excellent, and the fruit has the merit of keeping, and 
bearing carriage very well. It is ripe early in September. 
George the Pourth is a peach of American origin, which 
is good for forcing, and when forced it is very good in 
flavour. It ripens the middle of September. The mon- 
strous Pavie of Pomponne, which has many other names, 
is the largest peach we have. The fruit is yellowish- 
white, with a very red cheek; it is not first-class in 
flavour. In warm, dry seasons it ripens towards the end 
of October, but in less favourable weather it will not 
ripen out of doors. 

In Scotland, and cold localities, wall fruit of course 
requires a south or south-east wall, and in all parts 
which are not very warm those aspects are almost 
necessary. In all parts less genial than our most 
southerly counties, good kinds to select are Barrington, 
Violette Hative, Chancellor, Malta, Eoyal Charlotte, 
and Noblesse. 



122 THE ORCHARD Jl^B PEIIIT aARDE]S'. 



CHAPTEE XXL 

YAEIETIES OF 2n-ECTARINES. 

The management of the nectarine is exactly like tliat 
of the peach in culture and pruning. It is perhaps the 
most delicious fruit of our gardens when grown and 
eaten in perfection ; and a good succession may be kept 
up, with only the aid of well-placed walls, and necessary 
care throughout the last half of August, September, and 
the early part of October. 

Hardwick is one of the hardiest and most prolific: 
the fruit is pale-greenish, and is ripe the middle and end 
of August. 

Downton is also a good early nectarine, ripening its 
fruit late in August. The colour is pale green, with red 
on the sunny side. 

The Murrey is a melting, sweet, well-flavoured nec- 
tarine of medium size, rather longer than wide, narrow at 
the apex, rather fuller on one side than on the other, • 
pale green, with deep red on the sunny side, and with 
pale greenish-white flesh, which separates from the 
stone. The stone is oblong, blunt at the ends, and 
almost smooth. It is ripe by the end of August. The 
leaves are crenate, with reniform glands, and the bloom 
is small. 

Hunt's Tawny is an excellent medium-sized nectarine, 
of a pale orange colour, shaded with deep red on the 
sunny side, and marked with russety specks. The flesh 
is orange-coloured, melting, delicious in flavour, and 
separates from the stone, which is rather blunt, and 
nearly smooth. The fruit is ovate, a little fuller on one 
side than on the other, flattened on one side, and with a 
prominent apex. It is early, being often ripe by the 
middle of August. It is said to do best budded on the 
pear-plum stock. The leaves are doubly serrated, without 
glands, and the bloom remarkably large, handsome, and 
deep-coloured. 



YAEIETIES or KECTAEimES. 



123 



The Due du Tellier's is a very sweet, fine-flavoured 
nectarine, above the middle size, oblong, flattened near 
the suture, a little angular near the base, and narrowed 
at the crow^n or apex. It is pale green next the wall, 
and on the sunny side tawny, marbled with deep red or 
purple. The flesh is melting, greenish- white in colour, 
getting pink near the stone, from which it separates 
readily, and which is thick and blunt. The leaves are 
crenate, with reniform glands, and the blossom is small, 
of a bright pale crimson. It is ripe the end of August 
and beginning of September. It does best on the pear- 
plum stock. It is also known as Du Tellier's, Due du 
Tello's, and Dutilly. 

Elruge is an excellent kind. The fruit is of medium 
size, melting, juicy, and very delicious in flavour. It is 
rather longer than wide, greenish-yellow, becoming dark 
red or purple where exposed to the sun. The flesh is 
greenish-yellow, and separates from the stone. The 
leaves are doubly serrated, without glands, the bloom is 
small, and the tree an abundant bearer. Other names 
are Claremont, Spring Grove, and Elrouge. 

The Pitmaston Orange is the best-flavoured yellow 
nectarine we have, good in size, sweet, juicy, and very 
delicious. The fruit is rather heart-shaped, wide at the 
base, elongated towards the crown, and ending there 
with an acute nipple. The skin is smooth, and the 
colour orange, shading to very dark red on the sunny 
side, mingling together where the colours meet with 
streaks and speckles. The flesh is melting, deep yellow 
in colour, with a little crimson round the stone. The 
stone separates easily from the flesh, and is small, sharp, 
narrow, and rough on the surface. This is a very valuable 
kind : it was named from having been raised by 
J. "Williams, Esq., of Pitmaston, near "Worcester — it is 
said from the Elruge. The leaves are . crenate, with 
globose glands, and the bloom is rose-coloured, large, and 
beautiful. It ripens from the middle of August to the 
first week in September. Williams's Orange is another 
name. 

The Violette Hative is a very superior nectarine, with 



124} THE OECHAED AND rEUIT &AEDEN. 



middle-sized fruit, broader at the base than at the apex ; 
in colour, pale yellowish-green on the shady side, and 
dark red, mottled with pale brown dots, on the sunny 
side. The flesh is pale yellowish-green, changing to red 
near the stone. The stone separates readily from the 
flesh ; it is middle-sized, roundish, and rough ; the fissures 
on the stone are not very deep or sharp, and rays of red 
pass from them into the flesh. The leaves are crenate, 
with reniform glands, and the bloom is bright red, and 
small in size. This excellent nectarine ripens from the 
end of August to the middle of September, and it is 
so good that no garden ought to be without it, if by any 
means a bit of wall for a wall fruit tree can be found. 
It was of Prench origin, but it has long been known in 
England, according to Lindley, under the name of Yiolet 
simply. As Yiolette Hative it is well known to our 
nurserymen, and the name is much better applied than 
to the peach so called, although that is equally well 
known. 

The New White is a nice nectarine, tender, juicy, and 
fine-flavoured, with a small stone, from which the flesh 
separates easily. It is middle-sized, such a pale, yel- 
lowish-green as to be almost white on the shady side, 
and tiDged with red towards the sun. The leaves are 
€renate, with reniform glands, the blossom is large, and 
this nectarine does very well upon the muscle stock. 
It ripens the end of August and beginning of Sep- 
tember. 

The Early JSTewington is a sweet, nice-flavoured 
nectarine, rather below the middle size, a little flattened 
on one side of the suture, and fuller on the other, 
narrowing towards the apex, and terminating with an 
acute nipple. It is dark red, especially on the sunny 
side, and covered with a delicate bloom. The flesh is 
greenish-white, and red round the stone, to which it 
adheres firmly. The leaves are doubly serrated, without 
glands, and the bloom is large. It is in use the end of 
August and beginning of September. Several Newing- 
ton nectarines are named, but there seems no reason to 
doubt that Early Newington, Early Black Newington, 



hi 



VAEIETIES OF NECTABIKES. 



125 



Lucombe's Black, and Lucombe's Seedling, are exactly 
the same. 

The Eoman is a full-flavoured, excellent nectarine, 
very large, sometimes measuring eight inches in circum- 
ference, round in shape, a little flattened at the crown, 
greenish-yellow in colour near the wall, and deep purple- 
red on the sunny side, with russety specks, and a little 
roughness of skin. The flesh is firm, greenish-yellow, 
and turning very red at the stone, to which it adheres 
firmly. It is very juicy and fine-flavoured, and is ripe 
the beginning and middle of September. It is an old 
sort, having been cultivated in England more than two 
hundred years; and I believe it is one of our largest and 
best. The leaves are crenate, with reniform glands, and 
the bloom is large. It is also called Eed Eoman, and 
sometimes Eoman Eed. 

The Old JSTewington, or Scarlet, is another good 
nectarine, which ripens early in September; the skin 
is very bright red— purple on the most coloured side. 

The Peterborough, called by some growers the 
Vermash, is another very good green and red October 
nectarine. The fruit is under the middle size, and 
round, and the flesh is greenish- white to the stone, from 
which it separates. The leaves are crenate, and the 
bloom small, and very full-coloured. The fruit ripens 
early in October. To ripen well it should have a south 
or south-east wall, but in good seasons it is a nice little 
nectarine. Late Grreen is another of its names. 

Many other good kinds could be named. Brinion, 
Marbled, or Violet-red-at-stone is one of the largest of 
the Melting sorts (to be known by the flesh separating 
from the stones, not adhering to them, as in the firm 
kinds, or clingstones). It is often as large as the 
Eoman, and is a very good sort to have. The Tawny 
JS'ewington is a very good nectarine, and the tree has a 
nice free growth ; it, the Eoman, and the Scarlet JN'ew- 
ington are the fullest-flavoured fruit we have, especially 
if they are allowed to get a little shrivelled on the 
tree. 



126 



THE OECHAED AKD FEUIT GAEDEK. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

PLUMS, A-NJ) A FEW GOOD KINDS. 

Plums are budded or gmfted generally on the Brussels 
stock for standards, on the common plum stock for both 
standards and dwarfs, and on the muscle stock for 
Prune Damsons, White Bullace, and some other kinds. 

The Brussels stock has great vigour of growth, but 
not much durability. It may be cut down to the ground 
the year after it is planted out in the nursery, and it 
will, the same year, throw up a smooth fine shoot several 
feet high^ ready for budding the following year. 

More lasting trees may be made by budding on the 
common stock nine inches from the ground. If the stock 
be strong and healthy, the sort vigorous, and the soil 
good, it will soon grow standard high. 

Por standards, choose young trees which are straight 
and smooth in the stem, healthy, and without chafe, 
bruise, or any other injury, with regular heads of four 
equally strong, well-placed shoots. Plant them in the 
autumn. B}^ the following April they will make fresh 
roots, and the buds will put forth ; the shoots may then 
be cut back to three or four inches, and each will after- 
wards furnish three or four shoots, which will form head 
enough. If, when the time for the winter pruning comes 
round, there are not shoots enough to make a good head, 
the best for the purpose must be cut back again to 
obtain more shoots. The best of the shoots must be 
selected to form a good head, and they must be allowed 
to grow without being shortened again, unless some acci- 
dent should occasion a vacancy which must be filled up. 
All that standard plum trees afterwards require is to look 
over them regularl}^ from time to time, throughout the 
year ; in the summer, to carry on the disbudding process, 
as in other fruit trees, as far as practicable, and in the 



plu:ms, a2sd a few good KI^'"DS. 



127 



winter pruning to remove all superfluous shoots tliat may 
have been overlooked, and that may interfere with other 
branches, if left to grow. 

Plum trees for training, either for the wall or for 
espaliers, should be chosen with a central upright stem, 
with shoots from each side, the same as other wall trees. 
The horizontal shoots should be trained nine inches 
apart, except in sorts that are of very slim growth, which 
may be a little closer. As in standards, the branches 
must be left at fall length, unshortened. 

For summer pruning, disbudding must be carried on 
(as prevention is better than cure) at intervals. First 
remove all the shoots which tend exactly to the front 
or to the back. Afterwards all gross shoots or robbers 
must be nipped back, preparatory to taking them out 
entirely, if advisable, later. A few weeks later, and 
finally, all shoots that are not necessary may be pruned. 

For the winter pruning remove superfluous branches, 
and the remains of the superfluous shoots pinched back 
during the summer. Afterwards train the tree to the 
wall, as in other wall fruit trees. 

JSTeglected plum trees, showing only a number of long 
naked, unproductive spurs, may be quite cut back: when 
the young shoots grow long enough to nail in, choose 
two of the best and strongest from each shortened limb, 
and train them in, and at the next winter's pruning cut 
away one of the two, and leave the other at its full 
length. 

AVith plums, as with pears, there are so many of first- 
rate excellence that it is diflBcult to select a limited 
number; but the garden may be so planted as to keep 
up a succession of choice kinds from late in July to the 
end of October. The late kinds, such as Imperatrice, 
Saint Catherine, Golden Drop, and all late-ripening 
plums, require a warm situation, and an east or 
south-east wall, to bring them to perfection. 

Precoce de Tours is a deep purple, medium-sized plum, 
sweet and nice in flavour, and ripening late in July or 
early in August. It is covered with a bloom, the stalk 
is of medium length, and the flesh is brownish-yellow, 



128 THE OBCHAED AKD FBTJIT GAEDEIS". 

with red streaks near the stone, from which it separates. 
It is also called Early Tours, 

Jaune Hative is a very early plum, and deserving 
cultivation on that account. The fruit is pale yellow, 
with a little bloom, mellow but not fine in flavour, 
rather long-shaped, broader at the apex than at the 
the base, and with a suture down it. The stalk is of 
medium length, and slender, and the flesh yellow, and 
separating from the stone. On a south wall it will 
ripen by the middle of July, and it has been known to 
do so in June. It is the first plum that ripens, and is 
one of the oldest kinds we have, having been cultivated 
by John Tracdescant, the gardener of Charles the Eirst. 
The branches are slender and downy. Other names for 
it are, Catalonian, Prune de St. Barnale, and several 
besides. 

Early Eavourite is an excellent early plum : dark purple 
in the skin, fit for the table, and ripening late in July. 

Early Prolific is another valuable early purple plam, 
good for eating, and ripening also in July. 

Violette Hative is a sweet and pleasant-flavoured, 
deep violet, bloom-covered plum, rather oval, pointed 
at the apex, compressed towards the stalk, and with a 
shallow suture. The stalk is medium length, slender, 
and inserted in a small shallow cavity, and the flesh 
is green, and adheres to the stone. It ripens early 
in August; the branches of the tree are numerous, 
slender, and downy ; and it is a most capital bearer. It 
has been cultivated in England as long as the Hative 
Jaune. Other names for it are Violet and Early 
Violet. 

That most delicious plam, the Greengage, should be 
in every garden ; it is almost too well known to need 
description. Its beautiful yellowish-green, middle-sized 
plums have a most exquisite, sweet, and luscious flavour. 
They are sometimes tinged on one side, and russety ; 
there is a suture from the stalk to the apex ; the stalk is 
of medium length, a little bent, and set in a small 
funnel-shaped cavity ; and the flesh is yellowish-green, 
very melting, and separates only partially from the 



PLTIMS, AND A FEW GOOD KINDS. 129 

stone. It ripens the middle of August, on a standard, 
and earlier on a wall. The tree has smooth branches, it 
is hardy, and a most abundant bearer when it produces ; 
but it is rather uncertain. It is, without exception, the 
best plum we have, and when grown upon a healthy 
standard, with plenty of sun, it is richer than when 
grown on a wall, although, of course, not so large. 
Other names are Eeine Claude, Grosse Heine Claude, 
Dauphine, Abricot Yert, Yerte Bonne, and Brugnon 
G-reecgage. There is also a Yellow Gage, which is 
very inferior ; both are, however, excellent for pre- 
serving. Yet another, and much nearer to the Green- 
gage in excellence, is the Purple Gage. The tree 
much resembles the Greengage, as does also the 
fruit, except in the colour, which is violet, powdered 
with a light-coloured bloom. It appears to be a much 
newer variety, and has the additional merit of keeping 
until October. 

The Cherry plum is worth growing on account of its 
excellence for preserving. The fruit is small and heart- 
shaped, like a Bigarreau cherry, with scarcely any 
suture, and with a small slender prickle at the tip. It is 
pale red, with a few grey specks, very sweet, juicy, rather 
acid, and thick in the skin. The flesh is yellow and 
soft, adhering slightly to the stone, and the stalk is 
rather long and slender, set in a very small round 
cavity. It ripens the middle of August. The branches 
of the tree are smooth, with a wiry slender growth, 
and it is a pretty tree for shrubberies on account of 
the bloom coming very early. It is a good bearer, and 
is nice for dessert, and for tarts, as well as being so very 
good for preserving : it is a particularly bright-looking, 
pretty little plum. It is an old sort, and other names 
for it are Yirginian Cherry, Mirabolen, and JPninus 
cerasifera. I believe it requires rather a warm 
position. 

The Blue Perdrigon, Perdrigon Yiolette, Brignole 
Yiolette, or Perdrigon, is a useful plum for preserving, 
and also has a sweet pleasant flavour for eating. The 
fruit is middle-sized, oval, narrow towards the stalk, 

e: 



130 THE OBCHAED AND rETJIT aAEDEN. 

deep purple, and covered with bloom. The stalk is 
short, and the flesh yellow, separatiog from the stone. 
It ripens in August. The branches are downy. Of 
this plum Hakluyt wrote in 1582, " Of late time the 
plum called the Perdigevera was procured out of Italy, 
with two kinds more, by the Lord Cromwell after his 
travel." There are also the Eed Perdrigon, or Perdrigon 
Eouge, the Violet Perdrigon, or Perdrigon Violette, and 
the White Perdrigon, or Perdrigon Blanc. They are all 
similar in character, only differing in colour, and the 
three last ripen rather later than the Blue. All the 
Perdrigons are tender as standards in England, but they 
do well on an east or south-east wall, or in a warm 
locality. 

The Orleans, perhaps the best-known plum of all the 
kinds, is the most useful of any for common purposes, 
and no less excellent in flavour and abundant bearing. 
The fruit is of middle size, above middle size when fine ; 
it is nearly round, often swelling rather more on one 
side of the suture than on the other ; in colour, dark 
red, purplish in broad sunshine, and covered with a 
delicate bloom. It is very sweet and delicious in flavour, 
with a little astringence : the flesh is yellow, and separates 
clean from the stone. It is ripe the middle of August. 
It is also called the Red Damask ; it does not appear to 
be an old variety, but it is mentioned by Miller. The. 
branches are downy, and the tree is very hardy, and a 
constant good bearer. No garden should be without it. 
"Wilmot's early Orleans is a much earlier plum, coming 
in as soon as the Precoce de Tours, i.e., the end of July 
or the beginning of August. The branches are downy, 
like those of the common Orleans, and the fruit is a 
little larger, rather deep in the suture, and more com- 
pressed at the apex than the older one. It is also a 
softer and more juic}^ plum, and the stone is small in 
proportion to the size of the fruit. 

The Early Orleans is much like the Orleans, but 
ripens about ten days earlier than it. The branches 
are downy, and red at the extremities. 

Kirke's plum is one which every cultivator should 



PLUMS, A2fD A FEW GOOD KINDS. 



131 



make room for in tlie garden, if he can Lave several 
varieties. The fruit is rather large, dark purple, thickly 
covered with bloom, which does not rub off easily, but 
shows a few golden specks through it, firm, rich, and 
juicy. It is longer than wide, broadest at the base, 
with a longish stalk, inserted almost without a cavity. 
The flesh is greenish-yellow, and separates easily from 
the stone, w^hich is of medium size, oval, irregularly 
shaped and flattened, with a channel along one side. 
The branches are smooth. It is a very handsome plum, 
and a capital bearer, either as a standard, or on a west 
wall ; it ripens the beginning or middle of September, 
coming in immediately after the Orleans. It was im- 
ported or originated, a few years ago, by Mr. Kirke of 
Brompton. 

The Washington is a very useful plum for cooking, 
and is also nice for the table, being firm, sweet, and 
luscious. The fruit is dull yellow, with a little green, 
turning orange on the sunny side, with some crimson 
dots, and covered with a purplish bloom. It is of a 
good size, a little longer than wide, regularly shaped, 
and with a suture only at the stalk end. The stalk is 
rather long, and downy, and the flesh is yellow, 
separating easily from the stone, which is oval, blunt 
at the ends, and wrinkled. It is a large, handsome, and 
very useful plum, ripening in September. The branches 
are downy ; it bears well as a standard, or on an east or 
west w^all, but a south aspect is too hot for it : in such 
a situation the fruit degenerates. It is an x^merican 
variety, as its name denotes. It is also called Franklin. 

The apricot plum is one of the most delicious plums 
we have for preserving, on which account it deserves a 
place in the garden. It is also sweet and good in 
flavour for eating. It is rather large, round, yellow, 
tinged with red on the sunny side, and covered 
with a white bloom. The suture is deep, the stalk 
very short, and the flesh yellow, firm, and separating 
easily from the stone. It ripens the beginning and 
middle of September. The branches are covered with 
a whitish down : it is an excellent plum, and does well 

e: 2 



132 



THE OKCHAED AITD rUtJIT GARDEN". 



in a good situation ; but if the spot be not favourable, it 
should have an east or south-east wall. It is rather an 
old variety, being mentioned by Duhamel, 1768, and it 
is also known as Abricotee, and Abricotee de Tours. 

The Jefferson is an American yellow September 
plum, which many consider equal to the Grreengage in 
flavour, if not superior to it, and it bears well as a 
standard. 

The German Prune, Quetsche or Quetzen, is 
cultivated throughout Germany, Thuringia, Saxony, 
Silesia, Moravia, Bohemia, and Hungary, to dry as the 
prunes of commerce. The fruit is small, oblong, com- 
pressed at the stalk end, deep red or purple in colour, 
sweet, and slightly acid, and astringent in flavour. The 
stalk is of medium length, and slender, and the flesh 
yellow, adhering to the stone. It ripens the middle or 
end of September. The branches of the tree are 
smooth. Quetche de Breme is another name for it. 
The St. Martin's Quetche is a richer plum : a valuable 
yellow sort which hangs long on the tree, and comes 
into use the end of October. The Violet Diaper is 
another plum which is excellent when dried as a prune. 
It is a purple, oval-shaped plum, with a short slender 
stalk, rather deeply inserted ; it is sweet, juicy, and 
pleasant in flavour, with a narrow, sharp-pointed stone. 
It is a fleshy, firm little plum, and ripens before the end 
of August. The branches are downy. In French it is 
the Diapree Violette. The Brignole, Brignole Jaune, or 
Prune de Brignole, is a popular sort in France for drying 
as prunes. It takes its name from the town of Brignole, 
famous for its prunes, and there it is said to rank as one 
of the best kinds. It is a yellow plum, tinged with red 
on the sunny side, rather large and oval. The flesh is 
pale yellow and rather dry, but very sweet and good in 
flavour. It ripens by the end of August. 

A Damson tree is well worth growing where there is 
room to spare for it, as it gives no trouble, and its 
abundant crops of agreeably flavoured fruit come in very 
conveniently in a family. There are several sorts oi 
\)lack Damsons. The Prune Damson, with small, oblong 



PLTJMS, AND A FEW (3tOOD KINDS. 



133 



dark-coloured plums, covered with a thick bloom, stalk 
of medium length, and green flesh adhering to the stone, 
is smart, but not rich in flavour. The Eoyal Damson is 
similar to this, but with larger fruit. Both trees have 
the branches downy. The Shropshire Damson has 
smooth branches, which are not spiny ; it is said to be 
the best kind. To give a damson tree a fair chance, it 
must be grown a sound healthy standard, and planted 
out, uncrowded, like any other plum tree. 

The Winesour is another plum that is worth growing 
only on account of its goodness for cooking and preserv- 
ing : when preserved it is very luscious, and will keep 
for years. It is very like a damson, but fuller flavoured. 
The kind is said to have originated near Eotherham, in 
Yorkshire, many years back, and Eotherham is another 
name for it. Great quantities are preserved for the 
market round "Wakefield and Leeds, and sent all over 
England. 

Coe's Golden Drop is a most delicious plum, which 
should have a place in every garden. The fruit is very 
large, oval, greenish-yellow in colour, with rich red spots 
on the sunny side, and very sweet and fine in flavour. 
The suture is strongly marked, the stalk is rather long, 
slender, and set in a cavity, and the flesh is greenish- 
yellow, adhering to the stone, which is pointed. The 
branches are smooth, and the leaves have two globular 
glands at the base. It ripens the end of September, 
but it will hang on the tree some time after, and will 
keep long after it is gathered, either hung up by the 
stalk to a string inside a window, with a warm aspect, or 
each plum wrapped in soft paper, in a dry room. The 
original tree was raised by a m^arket gardener, named 
Coe, at Bury St. Edmunds, the beginning of the present 
century: the Greengage and the white Magnum Bonum 
were the parents of this most exquisite variety. It 
attains its greatest perfection on an east wall, but it will 
do very well with a west aspect. It also bears well 
as a standard, and the fruit is equally excellent for the 
table and for preserving. Like most great favourites, 
it has many synonymes : — Coe's Imperial, New Golden 



134 THE OECHAED Ain> PETJIT GAEDEN. 



Drop, Coe's Plum, Bury Seedling, J. Pair's Golden 
Drop. 

Coe's Late Bed is a very good purple late plum, ripen- 
ing the end of October, It is, I believe, a compara- 
tively new introduction. 

The Imperatrice is another splendid, yery late plum, 
which should have a place in every garden, however small 
the number of plums there is room for, provided there 
be an east or south-east wall to give it, which, in most 
localities, is necessary to bring it to perfection. The 
fruit is a fine deep pui^ple, with a very thick rich bloom, 
oblong, blunt at the ends, and tapering a little towards 
the base ; not very juicy, but with a sweet full luscious 
flavour. The stalk is very long, and the flesh firm 
yellowish-green, and adhering to the stone. The 
branches are long and smooth, and the tree is a good 
bearer. The fruit ripens in October, and, if well taken 
care of, it will keep until the middle of December. 
Imperatrice Violette is its French name. 

The Downton Imperatrice was raised by Mr. Enight 
from the "White Magnum Bonum, crossed with the pollen 
of the Blue Imperatrice. The tree is a most rampant 
grower, and the young wood, has much the appearance of 
that of the Magnum Bonum, only much stronger in its 
growth. The branches are long and smooth. The fruit 
is very much like the Imperatrice in shape, but dull 
yellow in colour, with a very thin delicate skin, soft and 
mellow, with a full piquant flavour. It ripens in October, 
and will keep well. The White Imperatrice is an earlier 
plum, which ripens on a west wall^ but it is too delicate 
for a standard. The fruit is long bright yeUow, with a 
frail bloom; transparent, firm, juicy, sweet, and sepa- 
rating from the stone ; the stalk is short. Its French 
name is Imperatrice Blanche, and the German Die 
Weisse Kaiserpflaume. 

The Saint Catherine is another good old late plum, 
which, like the Imperatrice, may be left to haug and 
shrivel on the tree, and acquire the richness of a sweet- 
meat. The plum is middle-sized, oblong, widest at the 
apex, with a small suture ; whitish in colour, turning to 



PLrMS, ASjy A FEW GOOD xrsDs. 



135 



pale yellow, tinted on the sunny side when it ripens, 
and sweet and rich in flavour. The stalk is of medium 
length and slender ; the flesh pretty firm, yellow, and 
adhering to the stone. The branches are smooth. It 
is a good plum for preserving. 

The White Bullace is worth growing if a spare corner 
can be found for a tree on account of its excellence and 
richness when preserved ; the preserve will keep a year, 
and it is particularly luscious and fine-flavoured. The 
fruit is small and round, and generally grows in pairs. 
It is yellowish-white when ripe, a little mottled with 
red on the sunny side, firm and rather acid. The flavour 
is not very good, but it improves when the fruit hangs 
on the tree until frost touches it, and it is very nice for 
cooking. It is said to be ripe in October, but it will 
hang longer. The branches are slender, twiggy, and 
covered with down. 

The above-named sorts will ofl'er good choice for most 
gardens. If only six kinds could find room, I should fix 
on the following : — TVilmot's Early Orleans, as a good 
early plum, Grreengage, Orleans, Apricot or Cherry 
plum for preserving. Coe's Golden Drop, and Impera- 
trice, as first-rate late and keeping sorts. 

I have not mentioned the Magnum Bonums, because 
several others are more generally useful, and more pro- 
ductive ; but both the white and the red are fine in size 
and appearance, and very good for preserving and 
cooking. They are ripe in September. They are among 
our oldest kinds, having been favourites in the reign of 
Charles the Tirst, The Morocco is a very good hardy 
early plum, which bears well as a standard, and ripens 
several weeks before the Orleans. It is a middle-sized, 
round, dark, bloom-covered plum, very nice in flavour, 
and will do better than most kinds in unfavourable 
localities. Lucombe's Xonesuch is another nice hardy 
plum, similar to a Greengage in appearance and flavour, 
but larger and handsomer, with a fine bloom, and a 
little variegation in colour. It ripens the same time as 
the Greengage. 



136 THE ORCHARD AND rRIJIT aARDEK. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

CHERRIES. 

A DEEP, mellow, rather sandy loam is the best soil for 
cherry trees. They will do in almost any tolerably 
fertile garden soil, if it be not too retentive of moisture. 

Common black cherry stocks may be raised from seed. 
Keep the stones in sand until February, and then sow in 
some place which is safe from mice. In the autum-n of 
the same year they may be planted out, two feet apart. 
.For dw^arfs, they may be budded the following year; but 
if they are wanted for standards, they must be allowed to 
remain until they have attained a sufficient height. The 
Mahaleb stock is best for dwarf culture, and that is 
usually obtained by layers ; but I believe cuttings will 
take. Budding is safer than grafting, in avoiding the 
danger of escape of gum ; but for dwarfs, grafting 
makes handsomer plants. 

As cherries do well only with free open space, the 
stocks, when they are planted out, must be assorted, 
planting the tall ones for standards, and those of a low 
grow^th apart from each other, as the dwarfs would not 
grow w-ell under the drip and shade of the taller. 

The budded young trees should be planted wiiere they 
are to remain not later than October or November, that 
they may have time to make fresh roots by the spring. 
About April, as soon as the tree begins to put out. cut it 
back to wdthin three or four inches of the place where it 
was budded, leaving embryo shoots enough to form a 
good head. If more than four should put out, leave the 
best, and best-placed four, and rub off the remainder. 
Let these four grow to their full length, only cutting out 
superfluous shoots when they grow, to keep the head 
uniform and handsome. If the heads of young cherry 
trees are properly attended to the first three or four 
years, they will seldom get into a bad growth afterwards, 
but they will require frequent careful lookmg over. 



CHERRIES. 



137 



All badly placed or crowded spray growing in the 
middle of standards must be cut in close during the 
rest period, and the spurs thus left in out-of-the-w^ay 
sheltered spots, although badly placed, with insufficient 
air and light for most seasons, may in bad seasons pro- 
duce a little fruit which we should otherwise go without. 
All the superfluous and unruly shoots should be removed 
young, as the amputation of large branches must always 
be avoided. 

Wall, espalier, and dwarf trees must be pinched in 
for the summer pruning. In May or June cut back all 
the shoots ^vhich tend in a wrong direction, except where 
a vacancy has to be filled, when an indifferent branch is 
sometimes better than none, and train in the young 
branches which are wanted. The distance from each 
other at which the branches of cherry trees are trained 
must be regulated by the size of the leaf. Those of a 
bold foliage, like the Bigarreau, must be from six to 
nine inches apart ; and those with small leaves, like the 
Morello, may be closer together. The branches should 
be trained at their full length, horizontally. In July 
there may be a second summer pruning ; after that 
there will seldom be more shoots grow that season. As 
the trees grow older, the spurs become longer, and must 
be kept within bounds by cutting them out in the 
winter, pruning whenever they exceed three or four 
inches, which will greatly improve the fruit. 

Trained Morello cherry trees are best fan-shaped, 
training the branches diagonally. Morello cherries grow 
on year-old shoots, and on spurs from the older branches; 
but the younger the spurs are, the finer the fruit will be, 
so that spurs more than two years old should be cut 
away. The Morello produces many shoots ; but they 
must not be left too crowded. The branches should be 
from three to five inches apart, training the outleaders at 
full length, and those which follow also. These leaders 
may be cut out annually in the winter pruning, and their 
place supplied. This will keep the tree within proper 
limits, and give it strength to mature fine fruit. 

The cherry is an easy tree to prune, because it is not 



138 



THE OECHAED A^'D FETJIT GAEDE]??". 



generally of rampant growth, and it makes little breast- 
wood. Dae pinching back in summer leaves little to 
do in winter. The snags of young shoots shortened 
in summer may be further cut back, where requisite^ 
in winter, and late-grown, immature wood may be short- 
ened back to well-ripened wood ; but very little shorten- 
ing is required for bearing trees, as all which is requisite 
to induce the production of sufficient shoots for covering 
the vrall should be done within the first three years after 
the young tree is put in its place. As in the standards, 
there will be some shoots to remove in the winter's 
pruning. 

One important summer work among the cherry trees 
is to watch the aphides and destroy them, especially 
from the first warm weather until midsummer. 

The usefulness of cherries need scarcely be spoken 
of. Morellos are excellent brandied. The Kentish 
cherry has the property of slipping easily from the stone, 
and when dried it makes a delicious confection. Many 
of the cherries are useful in confectionery ; many most 
delicious for eating, and useful and good in cookery. 
Cherry wine is said to be nice — of that I cannot speak 
experimentally; but most persons appreciate the cele- 
brated German liqueur called Kirschwasser, which is 
made from cherries. 

It is difficult to keep cherries on the trees, on account 
of two classes of depredators, with both of which they 
are great favourites — the birds and the wasps. A cover- 
ing of netting will keep off the birds, and with dwarf 
trees its application is not difficult. When preserved 
with nets, the May Duke may be kept in use from the 
time it ripens, in June, to the middle of August ; the 
Late Duke from that time to the end of September; and 
Morellos to the end of October, or even later. Wasps 
are more difficult to deal with: to keep them off, we 
must cover the tree with some kind of gauzy material. 
not forgetting to destroy all the nests in the neigh- 
bourhood, as far as practicable. 



USEFUL YAEIETIES OF CHEEEIES. 139 



CHAPTEE XXIV. 

USEFUL YAEIETIES OF CHEEEIES. 

The garden may be so planted with cherries as to keep 
up a supply from the beginning of June to October. 

The Early May, Small Early May, Indulle, Nain 
Precoce, or Cerisier Noir a Fruit Bond Precoce, is, I 
believe, the earliest cherry we have. It is small, round, 
pale red in colour, a little flattened at the stalk and 
crown, and tender and juicy, but not high-flavoured. 
The stalk is thin, not long, and deeply set. It ripens 
early in June, before any of the Dukes. The tree has 
a slender wiry growth, and small glossy leaves. It 
has no particular merit besides coming so early, and 
it is too tender to do very well as a standard, but 
produces well on a south or south-east wall. 

Werder's Early Black Heart is a better cherry, and 
almost as early. The fruit is large, heart-shaped, with 
a deep suture on one side, dark purple, and very juicy, 
sweet, and rich. The stalk is stout and short, the flesh 
and juice are dark, and the skin is tough. 

Tartarian Black, Churchill's Heart, Sheppard's Seed- 
ling, Eraser's Black, Circassian, Ronald's Black Heart, 
Black Russian, or Superb Circassian, is good in quality, 
handsome, and ripens the end of June or in July. It 
is heart-shaped, as some of its numerous names imply, 
uneven in surface, of a rich deep purple in colour, 
rich-flavoured, and juicy. The stone is small and rather 
long- shaped, and the stalk is slender and of medium 
length. The young shoots have an upward growth, 
with white epidermis, short joints, and plump leaf-buds. 
It produces the fruit singly, and bears well as a standard. 
On an east or west wall the fruit is splendid and very 
abundant! It well deserves a place in the garden. It 



140 THE OECHAED AJfD rEIJIT aAEDEJT. 

appears to have been brought to England from Eussia, 
but to have been introduced into Eussia from Spain. 

Knight's Early Black is another excellent black 
cherry, large and handsome, ripening the end of June, 
often ten days earlier than the May Duke. The fruit 
is blunt, heart-shaped, large, and uneven on the surface, 
like the Tartarian, deep purple when quite ripe, firm in 
the flesh, juicy, and full-flavoured. The stalk is long 
and deeply set in a round cavity. Mr. Knight raised 
the first tree of this kind in 1810, from the Bigarreau 
crossed with the May Duke. It is hardy enough to bear 
as a standard ; but, of course, it comes earlier if it can 
have a south or south-east wall. 

The May Duke, also known as Early Duke, and 
Morris's Duke, is another June cherry, when placed 
under sufficiently favourable circumstances to ripen it 
early. This most popular cherry is well known, and its 
roundish, deep-red fruit, rather flattened at both ends, 
and rich juice, saved from insipidity by a mild agreeable 
acid, are familiar to all lovers of cherries. The flesh is 
soft and juicy, the fruit grows in clusters, and the tree 
bears abundantly, does well as a standard, and is about 
the best kind for forcing. In most parts it does not 
ripen before the middle of July. 

The Late Duke, or Anglaise Tardive, is useful from 
coming rather late. The fruit is larger than the May 
Duke, bluntly heart-shaped, a little compressed, bright 
glossy red, tender, juicy, and rich in flavour. The flesh 
is yellow and tender, and the stone rather large. This 
and the Archduke are very similar in character, larger 
in the fruit and in the foliage than the May Duke, 
more vigorous in growth, and spreading. They will 
do as standards. 

The Black Heart, Guigniers a Eruit Noir of the 
French, Guines of Kent, or Early Black, ripens early 
in July, and is a very good sort. The cherries are 
pretty large, heart-shaped, a little flattened at the apex 
and on one side, with a slight suture ; they are almost 
black when quite ripe, and the flesh is firm, mellow, and 
rich. The stalk is of medium length, and slender. 



USEFUL YAEIETIES OF CHEEEIES. 141 



The young shoots of the tree have an upright growth, 
and are white in the epidermis ; and the fruit generally 
grows singly. 

The Black Eagle is another nice black cherry, which 
ripens in July. The fruit is large, flattened at both 
ends, deep purple or nearly black in colour, with very 
tender skin and flesh, and a rich full flavour. The tree 
is large in the foliage, and throws up very strong shoots ; 
the fruit grows in pairs and large bunches, and the 
stalk is long and slender. It is a very good bearer, and 
does best on an east or south-east wall. 

The Downton is a good white, and Biittner's Black 
Heart a great bearer, but not so good as the above two 
good black sorts. 

The Elton is a fine cheriy, resembling the Bigarreau, 
but coming earlier. The fruit is pretty large, heart- 
shaped, waxy yellow on the shady side, and bright red 
on the sunny, moderately firm, and very sweet and rich. 
It generally grows singly ; the stalk is long and slender, 
and the cherries ripen in July, the same time as the 
May Duke. It deserves a place in every garden, and 
bears w^ell as a standard, but of course is larger when it 
can have a wall. 

Harrison s Heart is a cherry of delicious flavour. It 
is large, heart-shaped, yellow or amber, tinged with red 
on the sunny side, tender, rich, juicy, and full-flavoured. 
It ripens in July, and it should have an east or south- 
east wall. 

Monstreuse de Jodoigne, Eeine Hortense, Belle de 
Bavay, or Seize-a-la-livre, is a new kind, with many 
other names besides these. The fruit is of enormous 
size, oblong, compressed on the sides, with a thin semi- 
transparent skin, pale red at first, changing to bright 
cornelian red, and becoming darker and more brilliant 
as it hangs on the tree. The stalk is long and slender, 
and the flesh yellow, tender, juicy, with a full piquant 
flavour. It is ripe the middle of July, and is a fine 
handsome cheiTy. 

The Royal Duke is an excellent cheny, ripening 
the middle of July. It is large and handsome, of a 



142 THE ORCHABD AND PEFIT GAEDEK. 



deep shining red in colour, never turning black, juicy, 
tender in the flesh, and rich in flavour. The stalk is of 
medium length. 

The Bigarreau, Turkey Bigarreau, or Graffion, is de- 
servedly one of the most popular cherries v^e have. It 
is large, irregularly heart-shaped, flattened at the stalk, 
pale yellow, turning amber when ripe, with glowing red 
on the sunny side, juicy, and delicious in flavour. The 
flesh is firm and yellow, and adheres a little to the stone, 
which is rather large and round. The stalk is long, in- 
serted in a shallow cavity. The fruit is ripe the end of 
July or beginning of August. It is large and very 
handsome in appearance. The tree has a fine upright 
growth, the leaves are almost the largest of any, it 
throws up strong shoots, with a white epidermis, and it 
is a good bearer. In a warm sheltered spot it does as a 
standard but in a less favourable situation, it requires 
an east or south-east wall. The Bigarreau Napoleon is 
an excellent cherry, and an abundant bearer. 

The Kentish is a well-known and most useful kind. 
Other names for it are the Flemish, Virginian May, 
English Weichsel, Common Bed, Pie cherry. Early 
Eichmond, and Sussex. It is of medium size, round, 
flattened at both ends, dingy red, a little mottled, and 
semi-transparent ; the flesh may be called rather fleshy 
than firm ; it is a little astringent and sweet, with an 
agreeable mixture of acidity. The stalk is rather short, 
slender, and inserted in a deepish hollow. It ripens 
about the middle of August ; it is one of our commonest 
cherries, and, with the exception of the May Duke, the 
most hardy. The tree grows like the Morello, with 
slender branches and glossy leaves. The stone is fixed 
so firmly to the stalk that it can be drawn out with it. 
The cherries thus stoned, and spread out to dry, make 
a delicious sweatmeat, a little like Sultana raisins in 
appearance, which w^ill keep in a dry place for a 3^ear 
or more. It is the kind of cherry most used for 
cooking, and I believe also for wine. 
It The Carnation is a fine, good-flavoured cherry, much 
resembling the Kentish. The fruit is 4arge, round, 



■USEFUL TAEIETIES OE CHEEEIES. 



143 



flattened, thin in the skin, deep bright red, a little 
variegated, rather firm, juicy, -svith a fine brisk sub- 
acid flavour, gaining richness as it hangs on the tree. 
The stalk is a little longer than in the Kentish, and 
stout. It ripens the end of July and beginning of 
August. Other names for it are Crown, English Bearer, 
Nouvelle d'Angleterre, De Villeune, Rouge Pale, and 
Wax cherry. The tree and its branches have a veiy 
similar character to the Kentish, but with a stronger 
growth. The leaves are larger, and deeply and doubly 
serrated. It is not an abundant bearer as a standard, 
but produces plenty of fine fruit in a warm situation, 
and does very well as an espalier in a warm garden. 

Florence, or Knevett's Late Bigarreau, is a heart- 
shaped cherry, flat at the stalk end, blunt at the apex, 
flattened on one side, with a shallow suture, in colour 
amber, marbled with pale red, and glowing red on the 
sunny side. It is firm, yet tender, juicy, sweet, and 
rich. The stalk is long and slender, set in a deep 
cavity. It ripens the end of July and beginning of 
x^ugust. It was brought to England from Florence, 
and succeeds best on an east or south-east wall. 

The Small Black, Black Mazzard, Common Black 
of Buckinghamshire, Merry cherry or Merries of 
Cheshire, Small Wild Black, Black Polstead, or Meri- 
sier a petit fruit, desen-es some notice from being the 
best parent of our common cherry stocks. It grows wild 
in many parts, and is much cultivated in Cheshire, 
Buckinghamshire, and about Polstead in Sufi'olk. The 
name Merries, by w^hich it is so often called,. is from the 
French 2Ierise : it is the kind most used for making 
cheny brandy (not brandied cherries), and it is the 
best sort to use for stocks. The fruit is small, heart- 
shaped, a little flattened at the sides, without suture, 
with a round dimple at the apex, thin in the skin, quite 
black in colour, sw^eet, and pleasant-flavoured, but a 
little bitter. The stalk is rather long, very slender, set 
in a small round cavity, and the flesh is a deep purple. 
It ripens the beginning and middle of August. 

The White Heart, Amber Heart, White Transparent, 



THE OECHARD Al^B TEUIT GAEDEX. 



Dredge's Early White, or Guignier a Fruit Blanc, is a 
favourite heart-shaped cherry, above middle size, dull 
whitish-yellow, tinged and mottled with dull red on the 
sunny side, melting, juicy, rich, and pleasant in flavour. 
The stalk is long and slender, set in a round cavity. It 
ripens in July and the beginning of August. The 
branches are slender and diverging, the epidermis is 
reddish-brown, and the cherries grow generally in pairs 
or threes. 

The Morello, Milan, Cerise du Xord, Dutch Morello, 
Large Morello, Black Morello, Late Morello, or Ronald's 
Large Morello, ought to be a good useful sort, to have 
so many synonym es ; and so it is, and a great favourite, 
valuable for use, and generally commanding a higher 
price in the market than most sorts. The fruit is large, 
round, dark red, becoming intensely dark when fully 
ripe, juicy, and full-flavoured, with a pleasant acidity. 
The stalk is of medium length, and the flesh is red and 
tender. It ripens in July and August, and is useful for 
cooking, preserving, and brandying ; but many persons 
like it for the table, on account of its full piquant 
flavour. It was known in England considerably more 
than two hundred years ago. It will produce and ripen 
its fruit as a standard, but it requires a good position, 
and the crop is uncertain. As an espalier, w4th plenty 
of sun, it gi^ow^s veiy fine, and on a north wall it bears 
abundantly, and the fruit ripens well, but it is less 
sweet than when ripened in a sunny spot. To render 
Morello cherries an excellent fruit for dessert, let the 
ti^ee have an east, south-east, or south wall; train the 
branches six inches apart, or more ; do not allow the 
fruit to be too crowded, and let them remain on the 
tree until they are perfectly ripe, or beginning to 
shrivel. 

Belle Agathe has the merit of hanging on the tree 
very late, even until October, and it is said birds and 
wasps do not touch it. The fruit is a small Bigai'reau, 
growing in clusters, heart-shaped, crimson mottled with 
yellow, with firm yellow flesh, and a sweet nice flavour. 
The stalk is of medium length. 



aOOSEBEEBIES AITD CTTEEANTS. 



145 



Biittner's October Morello is the latest of all cherries. 
The fruit is large, round, flattened at the stalk end, and 
indented at the apex, reddish-brown, thin in the skin, 
and juicy, with a pleasant sub-acid flavour. The stalk 
is rather long and slender; the flesh is red, reticulated 
with whitish veins. It is an excellent cherry, especially 
for culinary purposes, and it ripens in October. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

GOOSEBEEKIES AND CUEEANTS. 

A DEEP sandy loam is the soil on which gooseberries 
and currants do best ; but they will grow and produce 
in any free garden soil of pretty good quality, if it be 
freed from superabundant moisture, and well manured. 
They will never do in land which retains the mois- 
ture, but they thrive the better for surface moisture 
during the growing period, for giving which surface- 
dressing is then very valuable. They generally do best 
in an open unshaded spot, but it is sometimes good 
policy to have a few 'partially shaded by trees, as they 
will sometimes, in severe springs, set the fruit when all 
on more exposed bushes is cut off. 

New varieties are obtained from seed. When the 
fruit is ripe the seed is cleared from the pulp and sown 
at once. The next spring give the young plants a little 
bottom warmth, and they will grow up tall and strong 
the following summer ; some may bear the second year, 
and all the third. 

The usual mode of propagation is by cuttings or 
layers, generally by cuttings. 

Choose for cuttings young, fine, straight, well-grown 
shoots, and let them be a foot or fom'teen inches long, 
after the immature portion at the top is cut off. If only 
short cuttings of gooseberries can be obtained, they will 
strike, if they are planted under a handglass with one 
eye only above or even with the surface. 



146 THE OECHARD AI^D FEUIT GAEDEK. 

The month of October is the time for putting in the 
cuttings. All the eyes or buds except the four top ones 
must be cut out, as those under the earth would other- 
wise produce suckers. Plant them in any ordinary 
garden soil, in a light but not a sunny spot ; put them 
in about four inches deep, fix them firmly in the earth, 
and keep them a little moist during the following spring 
and summer. Let them be in rows, eighteen inches 
apart, the cuttings being eight inches apart. The 
young trees will make three or four shoots that year. 
In the autumn cut back the shoots to about four or five 
eyes each, and by the following autumn they will be 
nice young bushes with six or eight shoots apiece, from 
which those must be chosen which are required to form 
the tree. In forming the bush, no shoot must be re- 
served except those which are well placed both as 
regards their direction and their distance from each 
other. There are seldom more than five shoots suffi- 
ciently well placed to be retained, and often only three. 
Leave no centre shoot : if there are three, train them 
triangularly ; if four, let them grow in a square ; and if 
more, regularly round an open centre, like the shape of 
a tulip. They may be removed to their destination at 
two years old, or they may remain a year longer. 

Layering is done in the usual way. Raise the ground 
for the reception of the shoot to be layered ; cut a notch 
below each bud, lay the shoot along, pegging it down, 
and putting earth over it, and every bud will grow and 
root. 

Suckers may be taken to make bushes, but they are 
very apt to produce suckers themselves. 

Gooseberries require free thinning for their winter 
pruning, and this should be done as soon as the leaves 
are down. A gooseberry bush must be so thinned that 
no shoot is within three inches of another ; if they are 
six, nine, or twelve inches apart, so much the better, 
and the middle of the bush must be kept very open : 
attend to this especially from the very first. For the 
shoots to leave, choose strong ones, but not those of 
excessively vigorous growth. All shoots of rampant 



GOOSEEEEEIES AND CTJEEANTS. 



147 



growth, poor inferior sprays, and all coarse snags in 
the interior, may be clean cut away. Finish up by 
shortening the points which are weakly, removing only 
the bad and spindly tips. When two or three years 
old spurs become too numerous they may be thinned 
out, leaving only young ones, which will give the fruit 
more room to swell. 

Every year dig a trench round the bush as far from 
the stem as the branches spread ; cut away the roots 
beyond, and fill it in with a compost of good loam and 
cow manure. 

For summer culture give a top-dressing of half-rotten 
manure early in May. Towards the end of the time 
when the fruit is swelling, the points of long straggling 
shoots may be pinched off. 

In June, much of the waste spray which chokes the 
centre of the bush may be removed : the grossest shoots 
may be cut out entirely, and those about which there is 
a doubt, pinched back. This will improve the fruit as 
well as the wood for future produce. 

In the early training of young goosebeiTy trees, 
forked sticks of two kinds will be found very useful. 
Sticks cut from brushwood, half a yard long or so, and 
pointed at the end. Some must have the fork pointing 
downwards : these are to peg down the branches which 
want to grow too erect, and to draw them out so as to 
leave the centre of the bush open. Others must have 
the fork pointing upwards, and are to be used to support 
the branches which droop too close to the ground. 

Prize gooseberries are grown on young bushes, which 
are kept to five or six branches each. Only two or three 
gooseberries are allowed to grow on each branch, and 
sometimes only one, and in hot weather the bushes are 
watered, and shaded from the sun during the hottest 
part of the day. 

The winter pruning of currants must likewise be 
done as soon as the leaves are down. The side-shoots 
from among the spurs on the healthy, bearing branches, 
which have (or should have) been stopped in June, 
must be cut back to within an inch of the main stem, 

L 2 



lis THE OECHAED A^'D TEriT GAEDE>-. 



except in the case of any which may be required to fill 
up blanks. Shorten all the terminal points, to encourage 
the production of side-shoots the following summer, and 
to promote the formation of fruit- spurs. All tlie decayed 
wood must be cut away; but if there is much of this, the 
tree had better be destroyed, and a young one put to till 
its place. Unless a top-dressing has been applied earner 
in the year, bestow it now. 

For summer culture give a top-dressing of half-rotted 
manure in May, three inches thick, and spread it after 
rain. This is especially beneficial in localities which 
are subject to drought. Stop or remove all the poor 
watery spray, and when the shoots which tend towards 
the centre of the bush are about nine inches long, which 
will be by the middle of June or so, they should be so 
cut back as to leave the centre open. A fortnight later 
all the watery, wild-looking spray round the outside of 
the bush may be cut back to within four inches of the 
base, which will leave tufts of foliage to shade the swell- 
ing fi'uit. Some of the side-spray on the branches may 
be served the same, and, if growing freely, the leading 
points of the shoots may be stopped also. 

Currants begin to ripen in June, but will hang on 
the tree a long time if the birds, &c,, will let them alone. 
White currants will hang two months, and red a good 
while longer. They may be saved by the bushes being 
covered with nets or mattino". If mattino: is used it 
should be taken off once a week, on a dry, clear day, to 
get rid of the damp, and all the decayed leaves and 
cuiTants should then be carefully picked off. 

To get fine large currants, keep the trees thin of wood, 
as with gooseberries, and thin the spurs if they become 
too abundant, leaving only young ones, a few inches 
apart from each other. 

A few white currants planted against a south v/all 
are valuable to come in early for dessert. They may be 
put to fill up bare spots while other trees grow up, or. if 
there be wall to spare for them, they can be planted 
three or four feet apart. The branches should l)o 
trained six inches apart, vertically. The^ trees can be 



G005EEEEEIZS AVD CUEEAVTS, 



149 



furnished with young wood when necessaiy. by cutting 
down even' alternate Umb to within a fev; 1:: of the 
ground, and before these grow tall, the o:':^ iviay be 
cut down ; thus giving a succession of healthy, fruit- 
bearinsj branches. 

Black currants are propagated in the ner as 

the red and the white, and subjected to u^z - r early 
training, but their habit, and the treatment they i ^ .::: e, 
are somewhat ditioren:. They do be^: iii a looo^e ^.:;.::e- 
sive, rich moist i a: i::: in a They 

dehght in richness, and thrive on the bordei : :: ditches 
or drains. 

They should be pruned as soon as the leaves are 
fallen, unless they are in a very rar::T; ant -t^*e e: growth, 
in which case it is best to dehay, i^^: "hey io.:.y injure 
themselves by putting C'u: ara:n, In ti-e ' : ;ihoo nj 
shorteningr is required, un:--- i: i:e n^ee~-a-y n ir.eje 
troublesomely overgrn^ n n ees : but thin out iib-rally. 
allowing no two she:-:- Oj touch or cross each other 
thi'oughout the tree. As they oiovr ohi: cr ci;ii=h. prime 
away old shoots entirely, and ail that have merely a twig 
or two of young wood. The trees need not be kept so 
open in the centre as the red ani v-hi:e, 

The fruit of the hian: :o:.j..n in.n: 1:^ . as 
soon as it is ripe, or it will drop, cr horivei n . , all 
goodness. is eood for c:: kins', nr "Tii'o h; ^^ i::-, and 
for some n — - ie - _ :; i:e, 

and less ^c^r-Oi-y n— o _ ^ _ 7 n :n or 

gooseberries. A nn ii n nd : : nver. 
deser\-ing of a place in - they 

will do with a north aspe 

Goosebemes r re- 
moving all the L ci . ret 
high, and then allowing Tnev 
make very attractive-looniag ne. ^ nan. 

with great beauty and cleanliness. n n he 

trained similarly: the branches n aroop 
over and look veiy eraceful and r i^-- -eS red 

currants are ^ pretty 
well, and pre . .. ... .-^ -at such 



150 THE OECHAED AND rRIJIT GAEDEN. 



a spot is far better devoted to Morello cherries, or almost 
anything else that will do in such a position. 

Poor small cmTants are little worth growing, and should 
be rooted up, and their place supplied with good sorts. 

For wine-making, the White Dutch is said to be the 
best kind, because it is the sweetest, but red currants 
also make as good as any British wine, provided a 
sufficient quantity of fruit and of sugar be allowed. 

To grow currants fine, the trees must be kept very 
thin, and must not be allowed to produce too much 
fruit. 



CHAPTEK XXVI. 

A FEW GOOD GOOSEBERRIES. 

The Red Champagne, Red Turkey, or Ironmonger, is 
unequalled in richness. The fruit ripens rather early ; 
it is oblong, tapering a little tow^ards the stalk, of me- 
dium size, dark red, and hairy. The tree grows with 
erect branches, and is an excellent bearer. I believe 
Ironmonger differs from Red Champagne (although with 
many the sorts are reckoned the same) in having rounder 
and darker red fruit, a spreading habit of growth, and 
downy leaves. Another Turkey Red is a fine-flavoured 
smooth-skinned gooseberry. 

The Old Rough Red, Little Red Hairy, or Old Scotch 
Red, is a full-flavoured small gooseberry, which is much 
esteemed for preserving. It is small, round, dark red, 
very hairy, and long in the hairs. It is one of the best, 
not only for jam, but for bottling green. The branches 
have a somewhat drooping habit of growth. 

The Roaring Lion, or Great Chance, is a very large, 
smooth, red gooseberry. It is oblong, ripens late, the 
branches are inclined to droop, and it is handsome as 
regards size, but not first-rate in flavour. 

Melling's Crown Bob is another good red. The fruit 
comes rather late ; it is large, oblong, bright red, hairy, 
thin in the skin, and very good in flavour. The branches 
di'oop, and the trees bear plentifully. 



A FEW aOOD GOOSEBEEEIES. 



151 



Capper's Top Sawyer is an excellent red gooseberry, 
also ripening rather late. The fruit is large, oblong, 
pale red, and hairy at the stalk end. The branches are 
rather drooping. 

Knight's Marquis of Stafford is a late, large, roundish, 
bright red, haiiy gooseberry, very good in flavour. The 
branches grow rather upright. 

The Red Warrington is one of the best late varieties, 
and Keen's seedling is equally good, and earlier. The 
Emperor Napoleon and Farmer s Glory are both good- 
bearing red sorts. 

Other good red gooseberries are Diggle's Magistrate, 
with downy skin, and a spreading habit of growth — a 
first-rate kind; Miss Bold, a medium-sized, roundish, 
downy gooseberry, of first-rate quality and early ; it re- 
sembles Eed Walnut, but it is better ; the bush has a 
spreading habit of growth ; Raspberry, Old Preserver, 
or Nutmeg, small, thick-skinned, dark, hairy, very sweet 
and rich in. flavour, early, and a good bearer ; the 
bush is spreading ; and Rifleman, Alcock's Duke of 
York, Yates's Royal Anne, or Grange's Admirable, large, 
roundish, hairy, first-rate in flavour, erect in growth, and 
a good late bearer. Rob Roy, too, is a first-rate, hairy 
gooseberry of medium size, and erect habit of growth. 
Shakspeare is large and fine-flavoured, and Small Red 
Globe, small, round, smooth, and of first-rate quality, 
with a fine sharp, rich flavour. 

The Cheshire Lass is a white gooseberry, which is 
very useful from the fruit early attaining a fine size to 
use green for tarts. The fruit is large and oblong, and 
when it is ripe the skin is very thin, and downy. It 
is rich and sweet in flavour ; the bush grows erect, and 
is a good bearer. 

Cle worth's White Lion is a good white gooseberry. 
The fruit is roundish and downy; the tree rather of a 
drooping habit of growth. 

The Early White is of medium size, very good, sweet, 
and early. The fruit is roundish, with a very thin, 
transparent, downy, yellowish- white skin. The bush is 
erect and spreading, and is an excellent bearer. 



152 



THE ORCHARD AISTD PRUIT aARDEN. 



Eoyal White is a first-rate small, round, dessert goose- 
berry ; the bush has an erect growth. 

Orompton's Sheba Queen, a Lancashire prize kind, is 
a large, oblong, white, downy gooseberry, of first-rate 
excellence in flavour, and a good bearer. It ripens 
early, and the branches have an upward growth. 
Sheba's Queen and Whitesmith, or Lancashire Lass, 
are similar in character, and good bearers. 

Moore's White Bear is early, large, roundish, and 
hairy. 

Wellington's Glory is a fine-flavoured white goose- 
berry. It is large and roundish, with a thin, white, 
downy skin. The bush has an upright growth, 

Abraham Newland is an excellent white gooseberry. 
It is large, oblong, hairy, and full-flavoured. The bush 
has an erect growth. 

Hill's Golden Gourd is very large, oblong, greenish- 
yellow, and slightly hairy. It has a good flavour, and 
ripens early. The branches are a little drooping. 

The Early Sulphur, Golden Ball, Golden Bull, or 
Moss's Seedling, ripens very early, and is a great bearer. 
The fruit is of medium size, roundish, yellow, and hairy. 
The bush has an upright growth, and the leaves are 
downy. 

Rumbullion, Yellow Globe, or Round Yellow, is an 
excellent bearer, and the fruit is much used for bottling. 
It is small, roundish, pale yellow, and downy, not of 
first-rate flavour when ripe. The branches grow erect. 
There is also a green Rumbullion, similar to this except 
in colour. The Sulphur, or Rough Yellow, is a later 
gooseberry of excellent flavour, the leaves of which are 
not hairy. 

Other good yellow gooseberries are Yellow Warrington, 
Yellow Champagne, or Hairy Amber, of first-rate ex- 
cellence, Yellowsmith, much like it, Yellow Ball, first- 
rate in flavour, and Smiling Beauty, a thin-skinned, 
smooth gooseberry, of first-rate flavour. The White 
Champagne is a small white hairy gooseberry, of first- 
rate quality. 

The Early Green Hairy, Early Green, or Green Gas- 



A FEW GOOD aOOSEBEEEIES. 



153 



coigne, is good as well as early. The fruit is small, 
round, deep green, and hairy, with a thin skin, and a 
nice sweet flavour. The bush is very erect, and is an 
excellent beai'er. 

Edward s Jolly Tar is of first-rate quality, and an 
excellent bearer. The fruit is large, roundish, and 
smooth, with yellow veins : it ripens early, and is ex- 
cellent in flavour. The branches are drooping. 

Massey's Heai^t of Oak is another good green goose- 
berry. The fruit is large, oblong, tapering to the stalk, 
green, with yellowish veins, smooth and thin in the 
skin. The flavour is rich and excellent, and the fruit 
ripens rather early. The branches droop, and the bush 
is an abundant bearer. 

Parkinson's Laurel, Green Laurel, or Green Willow, 
is a large, roundish, downy, pale green gooseberry, a 
first-rate kind, and a good bearer. The branches grow 
erect ; it resembles Whitesmith, and ripens rather late. 

Wainwright's Ocean is a veiy large and rather early 
smooth green gooseberry. It grows with drooping 
branches. 

Green Walnut, Belmont Green, Smooth Green, or 
Nonpareil, is an early kind of excellent flavour. The 
fruit is of medium size, oblong, dark gi^een, and smooth, 
with a thin skin. The bush grows with long, spreading 
shoots, and the leaves are close to the branches. It is 
an excellent bearer. 

Glenton Green, or York Seedling, is veiy good. It is 
of medium size, oblong, tapering to the stalk, green with 
whitish veins, very hairy, sweet and excellent in flavour. 
The bush has a drooping grow^th, and is an excellent 
bearer. The young shoots are downy, and prickly at the 
base, and the leaves are downy on the surface. 

Other good green gooseberries are Jolly Anglers, a 
good late sort, with a dow^ny skin, and an erect habit of 
growth ; Gregory s Perfection, a first-rate late variety ; the 
bush is drooping ; Pitmaston Greengage, small, smooth, 
very sweet, and good for hanging on the tree until it be- 
comes shrivelled ; the bush grows erect ; and Wistaston 
Hero, a hairy gooseberry of good flavour. 



154 THE OECHARD AISTD PEITIT aAEDElS-. 

The premiums offered in Lancashire for new sorts of 
gooseberries, for many years past, have occasioned the 
production of an almost endless variety of this useful 
fruit. The prizes are given for size and flavour, and 
good sorts are so abundant, that it is difficult to select a 
few from among so many. A numher of the kinds I 
have named are Lancashire prize kinds, but many of 
our older kinds are quite equal to them in flavour, if 
not in size. The Ked, White, and Yellow Champagne, 
Eough Red, and Early Green Hairy are of the older 
kinds, and are unsurpassed in flavour. The price of 
gooseberry hushes is from 85. to 65. per dozen. Prize 
gooseberries have weighed 27 dwts. 14 grs. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

YARIETIES OF CTTEEAKTS. 

Good kinds of currants may be selected with much 
less difficulty than gooseberries, as there has never been 
either scope or fancy to increase their number so exten- 
sively. The White Dutch is the host and sv/eetest white 
currant, and some bushes of it should be grown in every 
garden. The bunches are of a good size, the stalks and 
currants are yellow, and the skin rather transparent. 
The White Crystal is very large and white, not so sweet 
as the White Dutch. Many poor, small, white currants, 
without much sweetness, are grown which little deserve 
the room they occupy. 

Among black currants, the Black Naples, or New 
Black, is by far the best, being very fine, excellent in 
productiveness, and milder and sweeter than any 
others. The bunches are short, but very numerous, 
and some of the currants will sometimes measure three 
quarters of an inch in diameter. Ogden's Black is not 
so large, but it too is very good, and the bush is hardier 
than the Black Naples. Common black currants are 
little worth the room they fill. The kinds of red 



YAEIETIES OF CUEEA^fTS. 



155 



currants are more numerous. Bushes producing poor, 
small, sour currants should be rooted up, and their 
place supplied with better kinds. 

Eed Dutch, Large Eed, Large Eed Dutch, or Eed 
Grape, is superior in all points to the old Common Eed. 
The bunches are long, and the currants large, deep 
rich red, and not acid, but sweet and rich in flavour. 

Knight's Large Eed is larger, and Knight's Sweet Eed 
is sweeter; the fruit is large, but the bunches not so 
long, and the red paler. Knight's Early Eed has no 
merit except that of being early. 

The Cherry, or Cerise, is early, and the largest red 
currant we have, but it is very acid. The bunches are 
short, and the fruit very large and deep in colour. 

La Fertile and La Hative are of foreign origin, and 
are both good sorts. La Fertile bears out its name in 
productiveness, and La Hative is early as well as good. 

Eaby Castle, Victoria, May's Victoria, Goliath, or 
Houghton Castle, is more acid than Eed Dutch, but 
well worth growing, from its superior size, and because 
it is better than any other kind in hanging long on the 
tree. The branches are long, and the fruit large, and 
very bright in colour — larger and brighter than the 
Eed Dutch. It ripens late and is a most abundant 
bearer. 

The Champagne, Pheasant's Eye, or Couleur de 
Chair, is curious. The fruit is pale pink, or flesh- 
coloured, with red veins. The currants and the bunches 
are of medium size, and it is more acid than the Eed 
Dutch. 

Wilmot's Long Bunched Eed is a decided improve- 
ment on Eed Dutch as regards size, and it ripens rather 
later than it. The fruit is large and deep-coloured, 
and the bunches very long ; said sometimes to measure 
over six inches in length. 

Other nice red currants are Napoleon, Provence Eed, 
Bunney's Large Eed, said to be a first-rate kind. Lander's 
Large Eed, and Gloire des Sablons. 

Aphides and caterpillars are the currant bushes' 
worst enemies. Syringing with tobacco-water is best 



156 THE OECHAED AND rETJIT GAEDEK. 



for getting rid of the Aphis, and hand-picking the only 
effectual method to use against caterpillars. 

For the production of prize currants, the hushes 
must he cut in very close. Mr. Eivers says, " The young 
shoots should be annually shortened to two inches, so 
that the trees, when pruned, are like the stool in an 
osier bed. Currants make very handsome pyramids, 
and bear profusely." 

The finest-named varieties of currant bushes may be 
bought for As. Qd. per dozen ; excellent sorts may be had 
for 4:8. ; and choice new kinds are occasionally as high 
as 9s. the dozen. 



CHAPTEK XXVIII. 

EASPBEEEIES. 

Most cultivators of a garden like to have a plantation 
of raspberries, because they make a delicious fruit for 
the table, a much-relished confection as raspberry 
jam, and a useful family store as raspberry vinegar — • 
a refreshing drink in colds and fevers. The wild rasp- 
berry has been a native of woods, and so loves a damp 
soil, retentive of moisture. The cultivated cane follows 
its natural habit, and loves a moist unctuous soil, of a 
strong loamy character. The raspberry cane so loves 
moisture and richness combined, that some growers 
have found them thrive best planted in trenches a yard 
wide, and eighteen inches deep, like celery trenches, 
manimng the surface from time to time, to retain the 
damp of the summer rains. This kind of planting 
would not do in cold wet ground, but would be most 
valuable in dry, light, or poor localities. A darkish 
loam is generally good for them, but only good, sound 
garden earth will do, and the soil should be tolerably 
deep. A shallow soil of hot, loose sand is the worst of 
all for raspberries, and under any circumstances top- 
dressing or mulching does great good. - 



BASPBEEBIES. 



157 



New plantations are made with suckers taken from 
the roots of the old canes, and great care must be 
observed to take them from a healthy stock, for if they 
are from those which have stood long in the ground, 
and are poor and lean in consequence, although there 
may be no positive unhealthiness, even high manuring 
will not make them fine without the loss of a year or 
two. 

The suckers are drav/n from the old roots by hand, 
w^ith a ball of earth at the roots, if possible : a slight 
pull will show which are good to be removed. Any 
time will do for planting them between October and 
the middle of February. The ground for the new 
plantation should be deeply dug, and manured pretty 
liberally with half-rotten manure. The roAvs may be set 
six feet apart, and the young plants should be planted 
in groups of threes, four feet apart from centre to centre 
of each group. Early in November the young plants 
may be pruned: cut one strong cane to three feet, a 
second to two feet, and a third to within a few inches of 
the ground. By this method a little crop may be had 
the first year, and good shoots reserved for the next. 
Some growers, however, recommend that the young 
trees should be cut down this first winter to within 
six inches of the ground, sacrificing the first year's fruit 
to strengthen the canes for future years. 

Seed is used to obtain new sorts. It is separated 
from the pulp of the fruit, dried, and put by until 
spring. Early in February it may be sown in a gentle 
hotbed. The little plants may be pricked out, in good 
rich mould, when they are three inches high, hardened 
off by the middle of May, and then planted out in the 
garden, in a rich bed. Afterwards train them, keep 
down suckers and watery spray, and when the young 
canes are tall, pinch off the tops to consolidate the 
w^ood. 

For the culture of established canes, as soon as the 
year's crop is done with, cut the old bearing shoots 
clean away, draw the young canes a little closer together, 
and by the end of August pinch off the tops of the 



158 



THE OECHAED A^^D PEriT GAEDE^^. 



tall ones. When the leaves are off. draw out all the 
suckers, and prune the canes, of which about four 
may be left to each root. Cut these at different heights ; 
the first about four feet high (or more if it be a very 
tall growing kind), the next nine inches lower, and so 
with all : this divides the spray and the fruit, so that 
none are crowded, but all get a fair share of air and 
sunshine. The canes may then be tied, and a top- 
dressing of manure may be given. 

Soon after they begin to shoot in the spring, about 
May or so, give a slight thinning out wherevernecessary, 
and a few weeks later, thin the suckers that are drawing 
on the resources of the plant and exhausting the soil. 
About four or five may be left to each group, choosing 
those which are of neither too rampant nor of a poor 
weakly growth. If the raspberries have not been 
mulched before, do it now. 

The best way of training raspbemes is to separate 
them by tying the canes, at about equal distances, round 
small hoops, which may be supported by light stakes or 
not, as necessaiw. It is a more general plan only to tie 
the tops together. Some fruit may be produced early by 
training the canes in the form of a fan on a south wall : 
raspberries may be forced either in pots, or planted in 
a bed in the house. They may also be forced by 
planting the roots outside a pit, drawing the bearing 
canes inside, and training them over a trellis, whilst 
the present year's shoots are left outside. 

Easpbennes produce their fruit on one-year-old wood, 
which when it has borne is of no more use, but may be 
cut down to make way for the canes of the present year, 
to ripen and produce fruit the next. The love of the 
raspberry for permanent moisture must not be forgotten 
in its culture. Also, although it requires a deep soil 
and roots deeply, encouraging the roots near the surface 
is as important with it as with most fruit trees, and this 
may be done by judicious top-dressing, and mulching. 
This is not a plant or tree from which we can cut a slip 
and gi'aft it for propagation ; propagation is from its 
own root, drawing on it for noui'ishment — an outlay that 



EASPBEEEIES. 



159 



must be returned by good manuring, without which we 
shall never get fine fruit. The suckers produced do the 
parent stock no harm only provided the loss to it be 
compensated by plentiful manuring. Another thing 
with regard to the raspbeny is, that it is a warmth-and- 
sunshine-loving plant : do not, therefore, cut off the 
canes straight at the top, as if one cHp of the shears 
pruned the whole, but prune the canes to various 
heights, as before recommended, and thus avoid a 
crowded cluster of fruit and foliage, among which 
neither sun nor air can have fair play. 

To stock the garden usefully w^ith raspberries we 
may have kinds which come in before the beginning of 
summer, and others (or the same) to produce again in 
autumn. 

The Eed and Yellow Antwerp have always been 
esteemed sorts ; the red are large and of fine flavour, 
and the yellow also large, yellow, sweet, and very good 
for dessert. The Sweet Yellow Antwerp has slender 
shoots, and is (Mr. Elvers says) the sweetest of all. 

Elvers 's Black is a hybrid (I believe crossed with the 
blackberry) very dai'k in colour, and with a certain 
acidity of flavour, which gives piquancy when it is 
mixed with the other kinds in jam. 

The Fastolf or Filby Easpberry is red, large, and 
excellent; it has pretty well superseded the Antwerp, 
being quite as good in flavour, much larger, and an 
excellent bearer. It has, besides, the good quality of 
sometimes pix)ducing a crop of fine autumnal rasp- 
berries, superior to the fruit of the double-bearing 
kinds. The double-bearing is, in fact an autumn 
raspberry. 

Carter's Prolific is deep reel in colour, large and good 
in flavom*. Vice-President French is a large, round, 
deep red raspberry, which is veiy rich and good in 
flavour. Cutbush's Prince of "Wales is fine in size, 
red, firm, and very good. Fillbasket is a large, good 
raspberry, and a most abundant bearer. 

As ofood autumn-bearino* kinds there are October Eed 
and October Yellow, or Merveille des Quatre Saisons, 



160 THE OECHABD AND EBUIT GARDEN. 



and Merveille des Quatre Saisons Jaune ; both are large, 
bear abundantly in autumn, with long spikes of fruit, 
and are excellent in flavour. 

Large Orange is a handsome fruit, of peculiar flavour. 

I believe the usual price of canes is from Is. 6d, to 6s. 
per dozen. There are but few kinds as dear as the last 
price ; excellent common sorts are Is. 6d. and many 
new choice ones 3s. and 4s. Carter's Large Orange is, I 
believe. Is. a root. 



CHAPTEE XXIX, 

STEAWBERRIES. 

Possibly the main thing which makes strawberries the 
especial favourites they are is their earliness. Unless 
we are lucky enough to possess the best-keeping sorts 
of apples and pears, they come upon us when home- 
ripened fruit has been for months unknown at our tables, 
and when the first warm weather renders their refreshing 
deliciousness doubly acceptable. In themselves, how- 
ever, without this favourable introduction, they have 
quite merit enough to make them welcome, and the ad- 
ditional advantage of being plentiful and cheap, as well 
as choice and excellent. The earliest luxury of the 
season to the gardenless Londoner is his pottle of 
strawberries, bought for sixpence or so, whereas as good 
a dish of almost any other fruit would cost much more. 

Although the strawberry is rather an uncertain crop, 
most owners of a garden can compass the growth of a 
small supply, and there is no fruit that better repays the 
grower, on account of its superior excellence when fresh 
gathered, to the finest the market can supply, if only a 
day old. 

Strawberries like a good loamy soil of some depth. If 
the soil be loose and sandy, it must be made firmer and 
more stable with a mixture of marl or clay, and if it be 
too heavy, it should be rendered more ppen by mixing 



STEAWBEEEIES. 



161 



in sand, road-scrapings, very fine cinder-ash, or burnt 
or charred materials. Boggy or peaty land requires 
burning, or the application of good mould ; and if it is 
Avet, draining is necessary. 

They are propagated by runners, which are thrown 
out by strings from the sides of the old roots, round 
which they take root. Those nearest the plant should 
be marked to save, as the best. When these runners 
have taken root, they may either remain where they are 
until autumn, or they may at once be taken up and 
planted in rows in the nursery, five or six inches apart. 
If they are taken up, and thus planted out, they will 
make fine, large, well-rooted plants, strong enough to 
bear fruit the next year. 

New sorts are reared from seed w^hich is cleared from 
the pulp, sown and kept safe from mice and accidents 
until the little plants grow. 

For making new beds, trench the giwnd two spits, 
i. e., twenty inches deep : the good soil should be as 
deep as this, and the trenching must not go below it : 
a good allowance of half-rotten manure may be mixed 
with the first spit. If the runners rooted in summer 
have been well taken care of, they may be finally planted 
any time before frost makes the ground hard to work. 
Beds may be made of four rows of strawberries each, 
wdth two or three feet between the beds. They also do 
very well made into a border, two or three rows deep, 
outside fruit trees, as far round the garden as the aspect 
is sufficiently sunny for them. Some prefer planting 
in single rows, or in groups of three or four. The 
strong growing kinds may be planted 15 inches apart 
every way, those of medium growth 15 inches between 
the rows, and 1*2 from plant to plant, and others respec- 
tively 12 or 9 inches, according to their luxuriance. 

The first year cut all the runners from the plants 
before they take root, to throw strength into the parent. 
If they show for fruit, spread cut grass or straw between 
the roots, both to keep the fruit clean and to retain the 
moisture in the beds. As soon as the fruit is gathered 
rake this off, keep the ground clean with the hoe. and 



162 THE OECHAED A]S"D FRUIT GAEDEIT. 

let the plants grow until winter. Then, and not sooner, 
cut off the leaves and fork the beds over carefully. 
The second summer the plants will bear a fine crop. 

Established beds should be kept free from weeds by 
hoeing them up in dry weather, and the beds should be 
set in order late in spring, all useless strings and runners 
cleared away, with care not to injure the foliage, and 
sticks placed against sterile plants, as soon as known. 
When the bloom trusses show spread grass or straw 
nnder them, and from that time until the fruit begins to 
ripen, the plants should never suffer from drought. By 
the time the fruit is gathered plenty more runners will 
have grown. These should all be cleared away about 
the end of August, as they exhaust the soil, and the old 
roots too ; but great care must be taken not to injure the 
leaves of the plants, as they have yet the important work 
to do of preparing for the next year's bloom. Pull 
up all the sterile plants, and fill their places with 
well-established runners. The next attention the 
strawberries require, except keeping under the weeds, 
is to cut away all the decayed and injured foliage 
jn winter. If the rows are far apart, dig a small 
trench between them and fill it with decayed manure, 
and if the rows are too close together for this, give a good 
top-dressing. 

A bank or mound, running from east to west, and 
with the slopes consequently facing north and south, 
is good for the production of early and late strawberries. 
The south slope may be planted with Black Prince and 
Keen's Seedling, and the north v/ith Elton. The slopes 
should be at an angle of 45°. Sea-weed and sea-weed 
ash is a good manure for strawberries ; liquid manure 
may be applied with advantage ; and some recommend 
mulching, just as the plants are coming into flower. In 
light ground give liquid manure in the spring. 

To obtain roots for forcing, place small pots filled 
with good, sound compost, and make the earliest runners 
that can be had root in them. When these small pots 
are full of root, remove the young plants into larger, 
place them in an open situation, and water them suffi- 



STRAWBEEEIES. 



163 



ciently. By the end of September they will have stout 
buds, and may be plunged for the wmter ; but forcing 
must begin very gently, and they must have a moist 
atmosphere. Commence with 55°, and by the time the 
leaf is developed, raise it to 60°. Keep the plants near 
the glass, give them plenty of air, and the less advance 
there is on the 60° of heat the better. 

Alpine strawberries are grown to produce autumn 
fruit. They bear cooler, damper, more shady situations 
than most kinds, and will do in a lighter soil. The 
fruit is conical, it has a peculiar aromatic flavour, and it 
is fine for preserving whole. Some recommend growing 
them from seed, chosen from choice specimens, sown 
the end of January, in gentle heat. Prick out the seed- 
lings in boxes, keep them under glass, harden them 
off in April, and plant them out finally on an elevated 
bed, in a sunny 'situation. They must be watered in 
dry weather, and when the fruit forms, it may have tiles 
or slates placed under it to save it from rotting in the 
autumn rains. Some in preference raise them from 
runners, like other kinds, selecting them from the finest, 
tmest Alpine ; the fruit should be large, broad at its 
base, and sharply conical. If the young plants are 
planted in August, do not clear the bed of runners the 
following summer, as with other kinds, as the runners 
rooted then will produce fruit in the autumn, and until 
quite late. Finer autumn fruit may be produced by 
cutting off all the flowers until the end of June, and the 
result will be a supply of fine fruit from the end of July 
until the frost. Alpines may be planted only six or 
eight inches apart ; and it is a good plan to plant some, 
both red and white, on a north border, and to retard 
them further by removing them every year. There are 
several varieties : the White Alpine, small and white ; 
Blanche d'Orleans, white also, but producing larger fruit; 
Brune de Gilbert, and Gallande, both small, very dark 
in colour, and abundant bearers ; the Eed Alpine, scarlet 
and productive. All bear in summer and autumn. 

The red and white Wood strawberries are similar in 
character, but bear in summer only. The fruit is round, 

K 2 



164 



THE OECHAED AKD FETJIT GAEDEX. 



small, and pleasant in flavour. They are not often cul- 
tivated. They require the same management as the 
Alpine, except that the spring flowers are not cut down, 
but the fruit allow^ed to perfect itself as soon as it -will. 

The Black Prince is a very early strawberiy, nice in 
flavour, and a most abundant bearer, if the locality suits 
it, not otherwise. The leaves are smooth, dark, and 
firm, wdth obtuse serrations. The fruit is of medium 
size, polished on the surface, and very dark-coloured. 

Keen's Seedling is a good early strawbeny, lai'ge, 
deep crimson, with a fine brisk flavour. 

The Old Pine, or Carolina, w411 about follow^ these. 
It is a bright scarlet, large, rich, and excellent in flavour. 
Stirling Castle Pine is larger, and equal to it in excel- 
lence of flavour, and Carolina Superba is also a fine 
straw^berry. Myatt's Pine is fine, but rare. 

The British Queen is a splendid strav/berr}^, as regards 
size, and it is pretty good in flavour. 

The White Carolina is a sweet, nice, and exceedingly 
pretty strawberiy, deserving more attention than it gets, 
and it is also a good bearer. It is such a beautiful 
strawberiy in its delicately tinted whiteness, that a dish 
of it is a picture. Some complain of it as w^oolly, but 
let it only be gathered before it gets dead-ripe, and 
few will surpass it in flavour. 

There is a variegated-foliaged Pine, which is very 
ornamental growing, but I believe the fruit has no great 
merit, and the plants are weakly, and poor bearers. 

The characteristics of the Hautbois are tall growing, 
rough, pale green leaves of thin texture, tall stalks^ 
middle-sized fruit, and a great propensity to produce 
sterile plants, which must be guarded against by rooting 
up all the unfertile plants as soon as they are detected. 
Eivers's Eoyal Hautbois is large, fine in flavour, and a 
most abundant bearer. Mr. Eivers writes, " The ground 
under my plants of this sort is always literally paved 
with large fruit of the most exquisite flavour." 

Other good straw^berries are numerous. Eleanor is 
large, late, and a good bearer ; Eliza is a good bearer ; 
Elton is a fine late strawberiy, of a rieli, deep colour, 



MULBEEEIES, MEDLAES, A>'D ^'UTS. 165 

and fine, rather sharp flavour. Eleanor and Elton are 
especially good for preserving. Besides these, there are 
many new and first-class kinds, descriptions of which 
%vill be found in the catalogues w^hich are sent out by 
most growers of high standing. 

Alpines are the first to bring into bearing by forcing. 
The plants must be potted in March or April, and kept 
with the pots sunk in earth, in a shady spot, until there 
is danger of frost, when they must be placed under 
shelter. From November or so, they may be forced 
wdth gentle heat, and they will bear through the winter 

The Eoseberry is a good sort to force to come in 
early in the year. Pot runners of the year in May 
or June; [as bloom and runners show, nip them off, 
plunge the pots, and bring them into the forcing-house 
in January. Put them near the glass, give the pots 
pans, and water the plants when they need it, and only 
in the pans after the flowers come. As the fruit swells, 
pinch off some of the leaves, to give light and air. 
Pines may be got ready in the same manner, to be 
brought into the house in February and March. A 
sufficient number of all the good forcing sorts should 
be provided to bring in, a few at a time, in succession. 
The Roseberry has the merit of doing with less light than 
most kinds ; and Keen's Seedling is excellent to follow it. 

Eoseberries, when they have done producing in the 
house, may be planted out in a bed of rich earth, and 
have the leaves cut off. Plants thus treated will produce 
a fine second crop in August and September, after which 
they will be of no further use. The Pines, after they 
have borne in the house, may be plunged, in their pots, in 
a shady border, and they will do for forcing a second year. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MULBERRIES, MEDLARS, AND KUTS. 

Any ordinary garden soil will do for the mulberry, if it 
be not too clayey, but it prelers mellow, naturally rich 



166 ' THE ORCHAED A^TD FETJIT GAEDEN. 

earth, not that which is made rich with manure, unless 
the growth becomes sluggish from old age, when top- 
dressing with good compost will be useful. 

It is usually propagated by cuttings or layers. The 
old plan of using for cuttings only the young shoots, as 
in cuiTants, is discontinued, and truncheons of consider- 
able size are now taken in preference, thus producing 
bearing young trees in a much shorter time. Cuttings 
of young shoots may be taken at the fall of the leaf. 
Plant them in the autumn, leaving only about two buds 
exposed. 

Large truncheons may be cut in February : set them a 
foot deep in the earth, and roll moss round all the portion 
which is above ground, except the upper pair of buds. 
This is to prevent evaporation, and the situation chosen 
should be sheltered from direct sunshine and wind. 

For layering, shoots of the year before are used. The 
layers may be laid down either in November or February ; 
they may be slit or ringed, or they will root without ; 
and the young plants may be divided from the parent 
tree at the end of one year. They should be planted 
in the nursery for two years, trained as standards during 
that period, and then they will be fit for their final des- 
tination. Common grafting seldom does well, but in- 
arching will make strong young trees in a short time. 

Seedlings may be reared as in the case of other 
berries. 

A young tree for a standard should have a straight stem 
without blemishes, with no more than three or four regular 
shoots for a head. When the tree has been planted a 
year, and has taken to the soil, cut back these shoots to 
three or four inches, and they will each put out several 
shoots. In August choose four of the strongest and 
best placed, and cut out all the rest, that they may 
grow, and ripen the extremities. The following spring 
the head should be thinned out, leaving only the well- 
placed shoots. The mulberry bears both on short- 
jointed young wood and on spurs, not on gross shoots, 
which must be thinned out and stopped, and not allowed 
to crowd the growth of the tree. 



MULBEEEIES, MEDLAES, AOT NUTS. 167 



For the winter pruning, take out' cross shoots wher- 
ever they are crowded. The shady side of the tree may 
he kept thinner than the sunny side, and watery spray 
growing from the branches in the middle of the tree 
should be removed. No shortening is needed except in. 
the case of over-rampant branches, which may be cut 
back, and their place supplied with fresh leaders. 

Mulberries bear forcing, and the fruit may be ripened 
early in July. The trees may be planted in a bed in 
the house, or grown in pots for the purpose. They will 
bear a high temperature. 

The Black mulberry is the kind cultivated for eating 
in England. The White is spoken of for feeding silk- 
w^orms ; but it is seldom seen. Young mulberry trees 
are bought for from 3s. 6c?. to 55. each, and larger for from 
£1 to £5. It is a touchy tree to remove. A good tree 
produces a great quantity of fruit, which should be 
eaten as gathered, to be in perfection. 

Most owners of a garden like to have one medlar 
tree, or perhaps more, if there be plenty of room to 
spare. Blake's Large and Dutch produce large fruit; 
but the Nottingham bears fruit , which is, although 
smaller in size, much better in flavour. The Stoneless 
is inferior ; but the fruit keeps longer than any other 
kind. The Eoyal is a new sort from France, which is 
like the Nottingham in flavour, good in size, and an 
abundant bearer. Trees may be bought for Is. ^d. or 
2s. each. 

The soil which suits the medlar best is a well- 
drained but retentive loam. The best modes 'of propa- 
gation are by layers or by grafting. Layers of shoots of 
the last year are laid down in February or March, and 
they will root by the autumn. Grafting is sometimes 
done on the white-thorn ; but it seldom produces good 
trees, because the stock is of much slower growth than 
the scion. On the pear stock it thrives much better. 
It is best to train up the stock standard high, and then 
graft or bud it. 

Standard medlars must be managed in forming their 
heads like standard plums. The shoots are less nume- 



168 



THE OECHAED AIsD TKUIT GAEI>E^'■. 



rous ; but they have a trick of turning in a wrong direc- 
tion, likely to distort the head of the tree, so that they 
should often be looked over, to correct their vagrancy 
and to give the tree a good head. 

The fruit should not be gathered until November, 
i.e., not before it is fully matured, or it shrivels, instead 
of ripens, as it softens. When dry, after gathering, they 
should be spread out singly, the calyx, or open side, 
downwards, on a bed of sand. If the stalk end is pre- 
viously dipped in strong brine of salt and water, it is 
said to keep the medlars from getting mouldy. 

Propagating medlars by seed is too tedious for most 
growers, as it generally lies two years in the ground 
before it grows. Those who wish to try it must let 
the fruit thoroughly decay, and then sow the seed in 
light soil, water the seedlings often when the weather 
is dry, and thin them to two feet apart. When the 
young trees are four or five years old, they will be fit for 
planting out. 

Those who have plenty of ground may like to grow 
nuts, and will find them a satisfactory crop. By nuts 
we generally mean Filberts, and those of the same kind, 
the Corylus avellana. The chief kinds are the White 
and Red Filbert. They differ only in one having a pale, 
the other a reddish-brown skin. The Prolific Cob is 
a fine, large nut; and the Cosford is thin in the shell, 
good in flavour, and a great bearer. The Prolific 
Dwarf takes little room, and so is good for small gar- 
dens, as it is also a great bearer. Gordon's Thin- 
shelled is a good sort. The Frizzled is very ornamental, 
and like other nuts in other respects. The Purple Filbert 
is purple in leaves and fruit, and equal to the Eed Filbert 
in size and flavour. The Kentish Cob, or Lambert s Fil- 
bert, is very late and very good, and the Merveille de 
Bolwyller is large, good in flavour, and a plentiful 
bearer. Nut trees may be bought for 6s. a dozen : 
these are generally about two or three feet high, and 
grown on their own roots. Mr. Eivers, of Sawbridge- 
worth, recommends the above-named kinds grafted on 
the Spanish Hazelnut; trees of this kind are 2s. dd. 



MULBEEEIES, MEDLAES, A^B KTJTS. 169 

each; they are four feet high, and are recommended 
as emitting no suckers, and forming handsome and 
prohfic garden trees. 

Any pretty good ordinary soil will do for nuts, 
provided it does not hold stagnant moisture, but a free 
upland, light loam suits them best, and a plentiful 
mixture of decayed leaf-mould is good for them. 

They are more frequently increased by layers than 
by any other mode. Shoots of the previous year's 
growth may be laid down in autumn or in spring, 
before the buds open, and they will root readily. By 
the end of the year the young plants may be separated 
from the parent tree, and planted out a foot apart, in 
rows three feet apart. In planting them, prune them 
to only one shoot each, the best, and cut that back to 
a foot or eighteen inches, according to its strength. As 
they grow% keep them to a single stem of a foot and a 
half or two feet high, before the head forms, which 
makes it easy to keep the root free from suckers. As 
the head forms, it is quite worth while to train it to a 
good shape, keeping it thin and open, and cutting aw^ay 
irregular, superfluous, and rampant shoots. 

Young trees may be made from cuttings, which 
should be taken about a foot and a half long, and all 
the buds, except a few nearest the top, should be picked 
out, to prevent the after-growth of suckers. 

Nuts are often also grafted, using the common Hazel 
and Spanish Hazel as stocks. The time for it is, as 
with apples and pears, when the buds begin to swell. 

Eaising from seed is little resorted to, except for 
rearing common Hazels ; but hybrydizing might be 
practised without difficulty in trees which, like the nut, 
bear the male and female flowers apart, so that crossing 
might be managed with ease. 

For the winter pruning of nuts, thin out all the ci^oss 
shoots and superfluous spray, and cut back rampant 
shoots to half their length, to induce them to throw out 
fruitful shoots for future produce. Nuts produce on 
shoots of the preceding year, which have been well 
exposed to the light to ripen them. The beginning 



170 THE OECHAED AIS^D PETJIT GAEDEIS". 

ot February is a good time for pruning, as by then the 
blossom shows itself; the female has a pretty little 
pink brush, and the male has the well-known catkin ; 
as much as compatible with due thinning out, avoid 
cutting away the bloom, especially the female. Filberts 
will often have a good show of female blossom, and 
scarcely any catkins : in this case there will be no 
fruit unless catkins can be brought at the time the 
farina is about to shed, and branches with them tied 
to the trees amongst the flowers. Catkins from wild 
nuts will do. 

After the winter pruning, nut trees require little ex- 
cept the removal of the suckers, and letting light into 
the centres, by cutting out ill-placed, watery growth. 
Those intended for dwarf growth should be watched, kept 
within bounds, and trained to a compact, good shape. 

Nuts, to keep well, should be thoroughly ripe before 
they are gathered, and well dried before they are stored. 
After they are gathered, lay them in heaps, or put them 
in hampers, let them sweat for a week, and then expose 
them to sun and air for another week. After this they 
may be simply packed in stone jars, left open for a 
fortnight, examined to see if they sweat again, allowed 
to get perfectly dry in the jars, and then covered down. 
Any damp about them will turn them musty, and spoil 
them entirely, so of course they must be stored in 
a cool, dry place. To impart a fresh-looking colour to 
the husks, some persons sulphur them, placing them in 
a close vessel, with a pan of sulphur smouldered under 
them ; but they eat better without this treatment. Lam- 
bert s Filbert is the best kind for keeping a very long 
time, and next to that comes the Frizzled Cob. 

Walnut trees may be purchased for Is, 6d. each, 
and those who have plenty of room to spare, and years 
of possession of land before them, will be repaid for 
planting. They thrive in a deep, loamy soil. The 
large French Walnut, Noyfir a Bijou, is handsome, and 
good in flavour. The Noyer de St. Jean has the advan- 
tage in our climate of blossoming after the spring 
frosts ; but the Dwarf Prolific Walnut, Juglans prcepar- 



PIGS. 



171 



turiens, Noyer Fertile of the French, deserves the 
especial attention of growers. The young trees will 
sometimes bear when only two feet high; different 
specimens vary in fertility, but any walnut which bears 
so early must be worth growing. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

FIGS. 

Figs can only be grown with success in a warm situa- 
tion, for hot, glowing sunshine is more to them than 
soih There are few parts- of England, except the far 
West, and the genial Channel Islands, where they bear 
abundantly, but in warm, sheltered spots on the warm 
chalk of Kent, and in similar situations, they will, in fine 
seasons, produce plentiful crops of well-flavom"ed fruit. 

A warm, genial summer is what they require : if there 
be over- much wet they crack before they ripen.-] 

A chalky loam is said to be the soil which suits the 
fig best, but almost any good, rather light garden soil 
will do for it. The ground must not be much mtoured, 
as that will encourage a too rampant growth. 

The fig roots firmly from cuttings. Take the cuttings 
of ripe wood, about four inches long, plant them in pots 
in January or February, plunge the pots in a moderate 
hotbed, and by the end of summer you will have nice 
little plants, fit for either fruiting in pots or for planting 
out. If the young plants are w^anted for forcing, pot 
them when rooted, bring them forward wdth bottom 
heat, and treat them much the same as vines. Those 
which are to go into the open ground should be planted 
out when there is no longer danger of frost. If the 
roots have become crowded in the pots, spread them 
nicely in planting them. 

The fig propagates freely by layers, and also by 
suckers taken from the parent tree, and shaded and 
sheltered until they take to growing. 



172 



THE ORCHAED Al^D FKUIT GARDEN. 



In England, fig trees require protection in winter, 
covering them u^p with mats, straw, fern, spruce, or 
boughs, before the time of severe frost, and removing 
the mats as soon as it seems over: fern or straw may 
remain a Httle longer, and spruce until the time for 
pruning. The pruning must not be dpne until the 
buds begin to swell. 

Old, useless boughs may be cut out entirely. In the 
growing period remove superfluous shoots, when the 
young shoots are about three inches long, leaving those 
which are short and compact growing. If the tree is 
trained, reserve what are wanted for covering blank spots. 
All the useless spray must be removed until about 
August, as growth of the sort will often continue until 
then, especially in moist summers. By this means all 
the wood for bearing next year will get good exposure to 
sun and air. When the little figs are the size of nut- 
megs, the ends of the shoots may be nipped off to 
encourage their swelling, and all suckers must be 
destroyed from time to time when necessary. 

Where a wall is required for the fig, as it is in most 
localities, horizontal training is best, and ample space is 
required for it. It is said figs may be grown as bushes 
in gardens as far north as London, and in parts of 
England south of that, if they are taken up early in 
November, without disturbing the earth round the 
roots, kept in a cellar until there is no longer danger 
of spring frosts, and then planted out where they 
were taken from. Figs thus treated will ripen a crop 
of fruit in September. 

Young fig trees may be bought for 2s. Qd. and 35. Qd. 
each, and of larger size for 5s. 

The kinds are numerous. 

The White Marseilles, the Madeleine of France, White 
Naples, or White Standard, is a fig of luscious sweetness, 
which bears abundantly, and does well for forcing. The 
fruit is of medium size, roundish, ribbed, yellowish-green 
when fully ripe, and ripening in August. It will ripen 
in England against a wall, and in a warm locality it does 
as a standard. Mr. Rivers states that this "will thrive and 



riGS. 



173 



bear two crops in the year in an orchard-house ^Yith 
boarded floor, without heat. 

The Brown Turkey, or Lee's Perpetual, has also many 
other names. The fruit is large, pear-shaped, and 
brownish-red, covered with blue bloom. The flesh is 
red and luscious in flavour, the tree is hardy, growls 
to a full size, and is one of the best for growing as a 
standard out of doors. It ripens in August and Sep- 
tember. It bears most abundantly in pots and on walls, 
and is a good kind for forcing. The Dwarf Prolific is 
similai' to the Brown Turkey, and a great bearer, but of 
a dwarf habit of growth. 

The Early Violet is a small, roundish fig, brown-red, 
with a bloom over the skin, red in flesh and good in 
flavour, ripening in August. The tree is hardy and a 
good bearer. It does w^ell for pot-culture and for forcing. 
Mr. Kivers states that in the forcing-house it will give 
three crops in one year. 

The Black Ischia is a medium-sized, very dark fig, deep 
red inside, sweet and rich in flavour, hardy, and a good 
bearer. The fruit ripens in August, and the trees do 
well in pots. The figs are roundish, flattened at the top. 
The Brown Ischia is lighter in colour, very good, early, 
hardy, and bears as a standard in favourable situations. 
Against a wall it will bear two crops. 

The Brunswick is large, pear-shaped, oblique at the 
end, green on the shady side, brown on the sunny, pink 
in the centre, w^hite near the skin, semi-transparent, 
rich, sweet, and high-flavom^ed ; it ripens in August, 
and is one of the most useful of the hardy figs, bemg 
hardy and an excellent beai'er, the best of any for 
out-door cultivation against a wall, but not good for 
forcing. 

The Angelique (Madeleine according to some) is small, 
pyramidal, yellowy dotted with green-white specks, white 
in the interior, but reddish round the seedS; and not very 
rich in flavour, but veiy good, v/ith an agreeable per- 
fume. Unless under very favourable circumstances, it 
will not ripen without artificial heat, but it forces well, 
and bears abundantly. 



174 THE OECHABD A2?D PEUIT GAEDEIT. 



Adam is a new variety from France. The fruit is the 
largest of any, roundish, brown-purple, and very hand- 
some. The tree has a fine, bold foliage, and is rather 
apt to cast the fruit before it ripens. 

The Large White Genoa is a fine fig of excellent 
flavour, white outside, red in the flesh, and ripe the end 
of August, but it is a poor bearer. 

The Malta, or Small Brown, is small, pale brown 
throughout when fully ripe, compressed at the stalk, 
and becoming ripe by the end of August. It is very 
vSweet and nice in flavour, and if it remain on the tree 
until it shrivels, it is quite like a sweetmeat. 

Pregussata is small, round, compressed at both ends, 
purplish-brown, with pale spots on the sunny side, deep 
red inside, and very rich and luscious. It is an excellent 
fig, in use from August to October, and very good for 
forcing. 

The White or Green Ischia is a very pretty-looking 
fig, the white skin being so transparent as to show the 
purple flesh through it, when fully ripe. It ripens the 
end of August, and !is rich and delicious in flavour. 
The tree has a small habit of grow^th, and is a great 
bearer. It is well adapted to pot-culture, and forcing. 

The Black and Brown Ischia^ and Brown Turkey, are 
the best to grow as standards, and they and most of 
the other kinds named above do well against a wall. 
They, the White Ischia, Angelique, Early Violet, Mar- 
seilles, and Pregussata, are good for pot-culture and for 
forcing. Figs should be eaten almost as soon as 
they are gathered. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

VINES. 

It~ would be out of place in a little work especially 
devoted to the fruit garden, to enter elaborately into the 
cultivation of the grape-vine in green-hoaises and hot- 



VINES. 



175 



houses ; but its treatment out of doors, on walls or roofs, 
succeeds sufficiently when the cultui^e is judicious, the 
kind appropriate, and the summer warm and favourable, 
to deserve a short chapter. 

The vine, to give it a fair chance of producing sweet, 
eatable fruit, must have a mellow, well-drained soil. 
An ordinary sandy loam is the best foundation, but if 
the bed be of any common garden soil, it should be one 
wdiich will imbibe and transmit moisture easily. Vine 
roots will go down very deep, but it is not desirable to 
let them : it is, therefore, well to plant on stations. {See 
Stations.) First see that the ground is sufficiently 
drained, and then lay the foundation, or make the 
station of some imperishable material — stone, brick, or 
clinkers, rammed tight together. About eighteen inches 
of earth above this will suffice. The soil must after- 
wards be looked to and corrected as it may require. If 
if wants richness, mix in fresh manure and plenty of 
decayed leaves. Any decayed vegetable matter is good, 
and a portion ,of it should be of an enduring character, 
which w^ill give out its enriching qualities slowly and 
lastingly. Coarse bone-manure, nubbly charcoal, burnt 
wood, and brushwood are good. If the situation is cold 
and damp, the bed may be raised several inches above 
the path. 

Yines are now generally propagated from eyes or buds. 
Pieces are saved after the autumn pruning, cut into 
lengths, and imbedded in moist soil until winter. Choose 
a nice eye, cut the wood off half an inch above the eye, 
in a sloping direction from the eye, and cut it off 
horizontally one inch below the eye. Insert each bud 
in a five-inch pot, take care that no worms can get in, 
and plunge the pots in bottom heat of from 70^ to 80^. 
When the young plants are something like a foot high, 
they should be shifted into seven-inch pots, well drained, 
and filled in with rich, turfy soil. Some gardeners 
reserve a bit of the two years' old wood at the base of 
each eye. 

Eaising young vines from layers used formerly to be 
more practised than it is now. Young wood may be 



176 THE OECHAUD AND PEUIT GAEDEN. 

put down any time between November and March, 
and no tongue or slit need be made in it. Before 
vines were raised from buds so much, nurserymen used 
often to keep old vines in pots for the purpose of 
making young plants. The shoots were layered round 
them in pots about February, and would be saleable 
plants by the autumn. If it be preferred, a growing 
shoot, with a portion of the previous year's wood, 
may be layered. 

Vines may be raised from cuttings, which should be 
taken while in a state of rest. If they have two eyes 
each, it will suffice, and they should be cut on a slant, 
just below the lower bud. Plant them singly in small 
pots of good mould, with the top bud just below the 
surface. Give bottom heat, and shift the young plants 
into larger pots as they require it, i. e., as those in use 
fill with root. In the spring, place them in the stove, if 
there be one at command, and remove them from there 
to the green-house, allowing them plenty of air, to 
prevent their running up weak. 

Speedily recommends using for cuttings two inches 
of two years' old wood, and one bud or eye of the new, 
planted in pots with the bud just level with the surface 
of the mould. Thick shoots of three or four years' 
old w^ood, of greater length, will root. They may be 
put in at once against a wall, or they should be 
planted in very deep pots, as nearly the whole length 
must be buried. In all cases bottom heat facilitates 
rooting. 

Vines raised from cuttings or eyes should be kept 
under glass for their first year, and they will benefit 
much from a judicious allowance of liquid manure 
during the summer months. 

Inarching is the kind of grafting most practised on 
vines. Common grafting is very seldom used. When 
it is, the stock should be forward ; it may even have un- 
folded some of its leaves. Whip-grafting is best ; the 
graft should have two eyes, and it is a good plan to cover 
the whole, even the buds of the scion, with moss, and to 
keep the moss damp. 



TINES. 



177 



Vines for out-of-doors culture may be planted out the 
end of March. If they are from pots, shake the earth 
gently from the roots, uncoil them, spread them out in a 
fan shape, spread a little good compost over them, and 
cover the surface with three inches of coarse charred 
material, which will absorb heat and admit water when 
wanted. The young vines will only require training 
until the autumn, when they must be cut back to three 
or four eyes. The next year the shoots from these eyes 
must be trained to any required fomi. They should not 
be at all crowded. 

When a young vine of one shoot is cut back to three 
or four eyes, each eye will of course become a shoot. 
As soon as they are long enough to nail to the wall, the 
two best must be chosen, and trained horizontally, about 
a foot from the ground. When these are two feet and a 
half long, the ends may be turned upwai^ds and trained 
perpendicularly for two or three feet, according to then' 
strength, and then stopped, by nipping off the ends ; 
laterals produced after that time should also be stopped. 
When the shoots from the two horizontal branches are 
long enough to require nailing in, three on each must 
be selected ; one near the end, one a foot nearer the 
main stem, and a third between that and the main stem : 
these should be nailed in perpendicular lines, allowed 
to grow until they are about four feet long, and then 
stopped. 

If young vines are not strong when first put in, they 
had better be cutback to two eyes: select the best shoot, 
train it up, and then proceed as above. 

To take up the progress of the trained vines : in the 
next autumn pruning, cut down exery alternate shoot to 
two eyes, and leave the others for fruit, two or three feet 
long, according to their strength. It must always 
be remembered that vines produce on young wood 
of the present year, grown from eyes of one-year-old 
wood. 

If each shoot produces more than half a dozen bunches 
of grapes, the bunches should be reduced to that num- 
ber. Each shoot which is cut back will produce two 



178 THE OECHAED AISTD TETJIT GABDE^T. 

shoots from the two eyes left ; the best must be chosen, 
and tramed upright to produce the next year, and those 
which have produced must be cut back to two eyes. 

On a very high wall, a second series may find room. 
Top-dressing and manuring are good for the vine, and 
care must be taken that the roots are not interfered with 
by digging too near to them. As general summer cul- 
ture, all superfluous spray must be removed, and the 
bearing shoots stopped an eye or two beyond the fruit. 
This thinning is valuable in letting in sun and air. 

To get fine grapes, one bunch to a square foot of wall 
will be enough to leave. The grapes in the bunches, 
too, must be thinned out, first when they are the size of 
peas, and again when they are the size of gooseberries. 
Scissors are used for the purpose, and the grapes in the 
interior of the bunch are cut away, sparing those which 
grow outwards. After the last thinning, every grape 
should stand quite apart from its neighbours. It is a 
tedious job, but the fruit will not turn out good for much 
without it; and in a season which is sufficiently favour- 
able to npen grapes out of doors, i. e., one of tolerable 
forwardness and heat, the fruit will prove deserving 
attention and trouble, which will add to its flavour and 
colour as well as to its size. The lateral shoots, 
too, should be stopped and never allowed to too much 
shade or crowd the fine foliage. In September the 
stopped laterals may be cut away, to give circulation 
of air, 'and to let the heat of the sun get to the wall. 
Then, too, the grapes must be protected from flies and 
wasps. 

The best kind of all for a wall, or the outside of a 
house, is the Esperione, which is extraordinarily prolific, 
very hardy, and of luxuriant growth. It perfects its 
fruit well, is a very superior grape, and even in un- 
favourable seasons does better than any other sort. 
The bunches are handsomely shouldered, and the 
grapes difi'er little in size from Black Hamburghs 
grown under glass ; they are large, round, inclining 
to oblate, veiy dark purple, with a blue bloom, rather 
firm, sweet, juicy, and good in flavour. The grapes 



TIKES. 



179 



ripen better and earlier out of doors than the Black 
Hamburgh. The leaves are variously cut, and they 
dye to a yellow colour, not red. 

The Chasselas de Fontainebleau is a good out-of-doors 
white grape. The bunches are long, loose-shouldered, 
sometimes compact and cylindrical, the grapes large, 
and generally round, firm, juicy, and sweet. It is 
hardy and productive, and ripens its grapes with 
certainty. Against a south wall it ripens in September, 
and in a favourable season the bunches will hang on 
the vine until November. The leaves are middle-sized, 
roundish, wdth an open base, slightly and regularly 
lobed, smooth on both sides, pale green, and becoming 
yellow late in the autumn. 

The August Muscat, or Muscat d'Aout, is a deep 
purple grape, rich and juicy, with a slight Muscat 
flavour, ripening on a wall out of doors, about the end 
of August. The grapes are of medium size, inclining 
to oval, and the vine has a dwarf habit of growth, 
which fits it very well for pot-culture. It is rather 
delicate. 

The Sweetwater is the best-known, and most gene- 
rally grown, of all out-of-doors grapes. The bunches 
grow very thick and clustering, and if the weather 
be at all unfavourable when the vine is in flower, 
they are badly formed, with numerous very small 
fruit crowded in them. The bunches are middle-sized, 
and the grapes are very juicy and sweet, but not high- 
flavoured. It ripens well on a south wall in dry, warm 
seasons. The wood is short-jointed. 

The Black Hamburgh ripens against a wall, in a 
favourable situation. The bunches are large, broad 
shouldered, conical, and Avell set ; the grapes rather 
oval, deep blue black, with a rich bloom, very juicy, 
sweet, and full-flavoured. The vine is a good bearer, 
and the bunches are regularly formed and handsome, 
and will hang long. In autumn the foliage fades 
off to green and yellow. It is a good sort for all 
purposes. 

The Black Prince is another dark grape, which will 

K 2 



180 THE OECHAED AZS^D FEUIT GAEDEK. 



ripen its fruit out of doors under favourable circum- 
stances. Tlie bunches are rather long, and the grapes 
of a good size, when well thinned out. The flesh is 
white, sweet, juicy, and nice-flavoured; and wdien the 
grape is pulled from the stalk, a red receptacle, covered 
wdth the white flesh, is left. The seeds are numerous 
and^arge, the leaves are broad, thick, long in the stalk, 
tinged with red, not deeply cleft, broadly serrated, and 
changing in autumn to pale red and purple. The vine 
is a great bearer, and the grapes colour well. 

The Black Cluster is quite one of the best out-of- 
doors grapes we have, — so good that it has been stated 
that it might be grown with us out of doors for wine. 
It is the real Burgundy. In Burgundy it is highly es 
teemed for wine ; it is extensively grown for that purjDOse 
on the Ehine and Moselle, and is much used for cham 
pagne. The bunches are small, cylindrical, and com 
pact; the grapes round, or a little oval, thin in the 
skin, blue-black, covered with bloom, juicy, sweet, and 
rich in flavour. It ripens well against a wall in the 
open air. This is better than Miller's Burgundy (which 
has downy leaves), the grapes of which are also not so 
large. 

The Pitmaston White Cluster is rather larger than 
the Black Cluster, compact in the bunch, and shouldered 
it ripens on a south wall earlier than the Sweetw^ater 
the fruit is round, a little flattened at the top, amber 
coloured when ripe, rather bronzed, with russet next the 
sun, and pleasant in flavour. 

Among these, perhaps the best kinds to select are the 
Esperione, Black Cluster, Chasselas, Black Hamburgh 
Black Prince, and Sweetwater, on walls w^hich are prett 
well placed ; and in less favourable localities try th 
White Cluster, or White Chasselas. 



MELO>'S. 



181 



CHAPTEK XXXITI. 

MELONS. 

Melons in pits belong rather to the green-house and 
forcing department than to the fruit garden, but kitchen- 
gardens may accommodate a hotbed, on which a mode- 
rate supply may be produced, and turn out very well. 

Melons do best with a bottom heat of about 80'^, and 
atmospheric heat averaging about 75°. As sunlight 
increases, they will bear an increase, both to roots and 
branches, of from 5° to 10°. To make the hotbed, 
throw the fresh manure in a heap, and let it lie for a 
week. There should be a good mass of it ; fifteen loads 
for each light will not be found too much, and by the 
end of a w^eek it will have become very hot. Turn it 
over, shaking out every lock or patch, and when it has 
lain for about four days longer, water it well. Let it lie 
a few days more, turn it over again, and water the dry 
places. In another week it will be fit for use, but 
another turning will do good. It must be on a dry 
or well-drained spot, exposed to the full day's sun, 
and sheltered sideways from winds which would lower 
the temperature. If the ground below be on a slope, 
so that the manure is equal in thickness all over the 
bed, so much the better. Make a hollow in the centre 
of each light, half as deep as the bed, place brickbats 
at the bottom, over them some half-rotten manure, 
over that a flat square of turf upside down, and then the 
mould. Avoid planting out the young melon plants until 
there is no longer any danger of burning heat in the 
bed; and as the heat declines, keep it up with coatings 
of hot fermenting manure all round the bed, and as high 
as it. If the foundation of the bed be sunk, the coating 
(called by gardeners lining) must be sunk also to an 
equal depth. Place the frames on the bed, and test the 
heat of the bed and of the air inside. 

Old seed is better than new, because the plants from 
it run less to leaf, and so give their strength more to the 
production of fruit. Give them bottom heat of from 



182 THE OECHAED A>'D TEUIT GAEDEK. 



75° to 85°. Before the second leaves come, the seed- 
lings may be potted m five -inch pots, filled with strong 
loam, enriched with manure, two plants in each pot, 
and plunged in a temperature of from 70° to 80°. 
When a shoot sprouts from between the seed-leaves, 
nip it off, which will encourage two more fruitful 
shoots to sprout, and these will be enough for leaders. 
About a fortnight later thev may be planted out in the 
bed. 

As the melons progi-ess, be it remembered, the bottom 
heat must never fall below 70°, nor rise above 90°, 
while the atmosphere in which they grow must not fall 
below 65°, nor rise above 80°, in general ; but when the 
sun is out hot, it will be eight or ten degrees higher. 
Shade is fatal to the melon. 

The seed may be sown about the middle of January. 
If, when the young plants are planted out, they have 
more than two shoots each, reduce them to that number. 
Water them when dry, according to the weather, water- 
ing also the sides of the frame, and the uncovered dung, 
once a day, or thereabouts. Wlien fresh coatings are 
given, the insides of the frames against them must be 
well watered two or three times a week, to prevent 
burning. 

When the plants begin to spread, introduce more 
earth, allowing from two to three barrowfuls to each 
light, from first to last. The bed should be raised in 
the middle, two plants set in the centre of each light, 
and a shoot led towards each corner. 

When the shoots are within half a foot of the frame, 
stop them, by nipping ofl" the ends, by that means en- 
couraging lateral shoots to put out, and these will 
produce bloom of both kinds, generally more male than 
female flowers. Every day, in the middle of the day, 
because then the farina will be dry, the female bloom 
must be set. As soon as there are four fruit on each 
plant, swelled to about an inch long, or rather more, 
cut away all the flowers that show themselves, stop each 
shoot with fruit three or four eyes be}'ond it, and cut 
away all coarse growth which is likely to weaken the 
bearing parts. Connected with these, let there be good, 



:!J:EL0^'3. 



183 



healthy foUage, well exposed to the light ; but let no 
inferior, late-formed leaves interfere with the older and 
finer ones. 

Ventilation must be given every day, and the warmth 
from the external coatings must be kept up sufficiently 
to allow for the fall of temperature that it will occasion. 
Continue to w^ater the sides of the frame occasionally, 
and when the melons are as lai'ge as hen's eggs, give 
liquid manure liberally; but always take care not to wet 
the collars of the plants. A week or two before .the 
fruit begins to ripen, withhold water, and give extra 
ventilation. 

None should attempt to grow melons who have not 
abundance of manure at command, as the quickest- 
growing require twelve or fourteen weeks to come to 
perfection, and some of the large sorts much longer. 
For small melons, the bed should be four feet deep, for 
larger ones, five feet, after they have settled; and they 
should be large as well as thick. A mixture of oak or 
chestnut leaves is good in giving lasting heat. The 
mould used must be rich and good. The over-head 
watering, which suits cucumbers, so well, does not 
do with melons, which are only watered at the roots. 
The great difficulty in their culture is to unite plentiful 
ventilation and high temperature, both of which they 
require. In Persia, melons are grown in fields, inter- 
sected with small streams in every direction, between 
which are raised beds, made rich with pigeons' manure. 
A good pit is better than a hotbed for sustaining heat. 
The Eock melons are perhaps the most commonly 
grown. The Small Scarlet-fleshed, the Black, the Large, 
and the Early, are good sorts of them. The Green- 
fleshed are deliciously refreshing : of these, the Beech- 
wood is a capital sort; the small Green-fleshed Egyptian 
is of exquisite flavour and thin in the rind. Others 
are Snow's, Terry's, and Kew Green-fleshed. Among 
Cantaloups there are round and long, smooth and netted, 
the Orange, the Montagues, &c. The Winter melons, 
and the Yalentia, keep a long time after they are cut. 
Lastly, there are the Persians, and many useful hybrids, 



184 



THE OECHAED AlsT> FEUIT GAEDEN. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE PLATE. 

The Eugenia TJgni, a recent introduction, compared 
'v\'itli most of om^ fruits, is a pretty, myrtle-like shrub, 
more than two feet high, growing full and bushy when 
well pinched back from a young plant, and bearing 
plenty of small, round fruit, which are peculiarly rich hi 
flavour. Some may not relish its powerful and peculiar 
flavour, but in ices and other confectionery all would 
find it unique and pleasant. The fragrance of tlie fruit 
is aromatic and agreeable. Although not quite hardy 
for our climate, it will bear almost anything but frost, 
and so it might do out of doors in mild localities, and it 
prospers almost anywhere if taken in for the winter. 

The fruit is small ; if careful cultivation could make 
it larger, the improvement would be great. Give the 
plant a rich soil, with plenty of air and moisture through 
spring and summer. Increase by cuttings in the spring, 
repot them in June, and again the following March, and 
that year they will flower and produce. 

The Physalis edulis, JPhysalis pubescens, or Cape goose- 
berry, is a perennial of most luxuriant growth. It was 
a native of Peru, an exotic at the Cape, thence sent to 
New South Wales and Tasmania, and so round to us. 
It is hardy against anything but frost, should not be 
pampered with heat, dies down in the winter, and bears 
abundantly for many months in the year. The fruit is 
peculiar in flavour, but very nice either raw or cooked. 
The plants may be grown from either seed or cuttings, 
and directly they are grown up they will begin to bear. 
Unless more acclimatized than at present they must be 
taken in for the winter, but any place safe from frost 
will keep them alive. JPJiy salts Peruviana^ selected by 
our artist, differs from this slightly. 



INDEX. 



Acari, 49. 

Acton Scot Peach. 117. 
Alfriston apple, 93. 
Almonds, 105. 
— , varieties of, 106. 
Alpine stra-wbei-ries, 163, 
American blight, 7, 46. 
Annular budding, 24. 
Aphides, 48. 

Apparatus for protecting. 



Apple, or sweet quince, 83, 
Apple, Alfriston, 93. 
— , Beauty of Kent, 94. 
— , Blenheim Orange, 97. 
— Calville Blanche, 100. 
— , Codlins, 92. 
— , Com-t of Wick, 101. 
— , Do\sT.iton Pippin, 95. 
— , Emperor Alexander, 93 
— , Golden Xoble, 99. 
— , Golden Pippin, 94. 
— , Golden Remette, 102. 
— , Golden Russet, 97. 
— , Havrthomden, 93. 
— , Irish Peach, 90. 
— , Juneating, 90. 
— , King of the Pippins, 96. 
— , Lemon Pippin, 98. 
— , Lord Suflield, 92. 
— , Xonesuch, 94. 
— , Norfolk Beaufin, 99. 
— , Old Nonpareil, 100. 
— , Red Quarenden, 91. 
— , Ribston Pippin, 101. 
— , Reinette de Canada, 
98. 

— , Reinette Anana, 97. 
— , Scarlet Crofton, 94. 
— , Scarlet Pearmain, 96. 
— , Spring Grove Codlin, 92. 
— , Summer Golden Pippin, 
91. 

— , Summer Pearmain, 96. 
— , Wellmgton, 99. 
— , AYhite Astrakan, 91. 
— , White Quarenden, 91. 
— , Winter Nonesuch, 94. 
Apples, 6, 27, 38, 86. 
— , Autumn, 93. 
— , bark beetle, 47. 
— , as pyramids, 88. 



Apples, cooking, 92, 99. 
— , cordonhorizontal train- 
ing, 89. 
— , early, 90. 
— , eating, 90, 93, 100. 

— for cider, 104. 

— for cooking or eating, 
97, 9S. 

— , on Crabs, 90. 
— , planting, 88. 
— , Rivers's list of, 103. 
— , selection of, 102. 
— , soil for, 86, 87. 
— , stocks, 87. 
— , weevil, 54. 
Apricot moth, 51. 

— plum, 131. 
— , Breda, 110. 
— , Blenheim, 110. 
— , Early Precoce, 109. 
— , Hemskirke, 110. 
— , Masculine, 109. 

Moor Park, 109, 110. 
— , Royal, 110. 
Apricots, 106. 
— , aspect for, 107. 
— , pin.uiing, 108. 
— , soil for, 107. 
— , training, 107, 108. 
— , seedling, 107. 
— , varieties, 109 to 111. 
Autumn apples, 93. 
— , pears, 70. 
Averruncators, 56. 

Baking pears, 83. 
Baloon training, 32. 



Bigarreau cherry, 142. 
Birds, 41. 

Bishop's Thumb pear, 68. 
Black currants, 149. 

— pear of Worcester, bak- 
ing pear, 84. 

— Eagle cheny, 141. 

— Heart cherry, 140. 
Blenheim apricot, 110. 

— Orange apple, 97. 
Blue Perdiigon plum, 129. 
Breda apriCot, 110. 
Brignole prune, 132. 
Bowed cuttings, 14. 
Budding, 21 to 24. 

Peaches, 113. 
Blittner's October cheiTv, 
145. 

Cherry, Belle Agathe, 144. 
— , Bigareau, 142. 
— , Black Heart, 140. 
— , Black Eagle, 141. 
— , Blittner's October, 145. 
— , Carnation, 142. 
— , Downton, 141. 
— , Early, 139. 
— , Elton, 141. 
— , Florence, 143. 
— , Harrison's Heart, 141. 
— , Kentish, 142. 
— , Knight's Early Black, 
140. 

— Late Duke, 14i>. 
— , May Duke, 140. 
— , Monstreuse de JodoigTie, 
141. 



Bank for strawberries, 162. : — , Morello, 144. 
I Barring-ton peach, 118. j — , Royal Duke, 141. 
; Beauty of Kent apple, 94. I — , Small black, 143. 
i Belle Agathe cherry, 144. 1 — Tartarian black, 139. 
BeUe de Jersey baking — , Werder's Early Black 



pear, 84. 
Bellegarde peach, 118. 
BeUisime d'Hiver baking 

pear, 84. 
Beurre Clairgeau pear, 74. 

— d'Amaulis pear, 67. 

— de Capiaumont, 69. 

— d'Aremberg, 76. 

— Diel, 76. 

— Ranee, 78. 



Heart, 139 
— , White Heart, 143. 
Cherries, 136. 
— , pruning, 137. 
Calebasse pear, 68. 
Callus, 14. 

Calville Blanche apple, 100. 
Canker, 7, 42. 
Caterpillars) 50. 
Catillac baking pear, So. 



186 



INDEX. 



Camation cheriy, 142. 
Chaumon telle peai% 76. 

— for baking, 85. 
Chancellor peacli, 119. 
Chermes, 50. 
Cherry plum, 129. 
Chinese quince, 83. 
Chink grafting, 20. 
Choosing trees, 6. 
Cleft gTafting, 19. 
Coccus, 47. 
Codlin moth, 53. 

— stock, 87. 
Codlins, 92. 

Coe's Golden Drop plum, 
183. 

— Late Red, 134, 
Convenience of dwarf 

trees, 36. 
Cordon traming, 36. 

— horizontal training, 89. 
Court of Wick apple, 101. 
Crab stocks, 11. 
Crassane pear, 73. 
Cross fertilization, 13. 
Crown grafting, 19. 
Currants, 145. 
— , prize, 156. 
— , enemies to, 155. 
• — , on a single stem, 149. 
Cuttings, 13, 14, 145. 

— of gooseberries and 
currants, 149. 

Damsons, 132. 
Dexterity in budding, 23, 
24. 

Diagonal cordon training, 
35. 

Double grafting, 86. 
Double-blossomed pear, 84. 
Doucin stock, 11, 88. 
Downton cherrj", 141. 

— Imperatrice plum, 134. 

— nectarine, 122. 

— Pippin, 95. 
Doyenne Blanc pear, 71. 
Due du Tellier nectarine, 

123. 

Duchesse d'Angouleme 

pear, 70. 
Dwarf Prolific walnut, l7l. 



Eai'^ly Precoce apricot, 109 

— pears, 65, 67. 

— York peach, 116. 
Earwigs, 52. 
Easter Beurre pear, 77. 
Elruge nectarine, 123. 
Elton cherry, 141. 
Emperor Alexander apple, 

93. 

English paradise stock, 11 
Ermine moth, 51. 



Early Admirable peach, 
117. 

— Anne peach, 116. 

— apples, 90. 

— Favourite plum, 128. 

— May cherry, 139. 

— Newington nectarine, 
124, 

— Orleans plum, 130. 

— Prolific plum, 128. 



Espaliers, 31, 62. 
Eyes, 14. 

Fencing, 4. 
Figs, 171. 

— , cuttings of, 171. 
— , soil for, 171. 
— , varieties of, 172-174. 
Fig-ure of 8 moth, 52. 
Florence cherry, 143. 
Forcing strawberries, 162, 
Forked sticks for goose- 
berries, 147. 
Frame for fruit, 57. 
Free stock, 11. 
French paradise stock, 11. 
Frigi domo, 39. 
Fi'uit-buds and leaf -buds, 
62. 

Fruit-room, 56. 

Gathering fruit, 59. 

— medlars, 168. 
German prune, 132, 
Glout Morceau, 76. 
Gnorimus nobilis, 46. 
Goat moth, 46. 
Golden Noble apple, 99. 

— Pippin, 94. 

— Reinette apple, 102. 

— Russet apple, 97. 
Gooseberry caterpillar, 51 
Gooseberries, 145. 
— , on a single stem, 149. 

prize, 147. 
— , varieties of, 150 to 154. 
Graciali pear, 67. 
Grafts, 11. 

Grafting, 12, 16 to 21. 

— apples, 87. 

— clay, 17. 

— wax, 17. 
Green chisel pear, 66. 
Greengage plum, 128. 
Grosse Mignonne peach, 

117. 
Gum, 45. 

Hardwick nectarine, 122. 
Harrison's. Heart cherry, 
141. 

Hawthomden apple, 93. 



Heat for melons, 181, 182. 
Hedges, 5. 

Hemskirke apricot, 110. 
Hotbed for melons, 181. 
Hot walls, 4. 

Hunt's Tawny nectarine, 
122. 

In-arching, 20, 178. 
Insects, 45 to 54, 
Irish Peach apple, 90. 
Iron hmrdles for training, 
31. 

Jargonelle pears, 65. 
Jaune Hative plum, 128. 
Jefferson plum, 132. 
Josephine de jMalines 

pear, 78. 
Juneating apple, 90. 

— stock, 87. 

Keeping apples, 97. 

— cherries, 138. 
Kentish cherries, 142. 
King of the Pippins, 96. 
Kirke's plum, 130, 
Knight's Early Black 

cherry, 140. 

Lackey moth, 54. 
Ladybii'ds, 54, 
Lancashire prize goose- 
berries, 154, 
Late Admirable peach, 117, 

— Duke cherry, 140, 
Layering, 15. 
Layers, 13. 

Leaf destroyers, 47 to 54. 
Lemon Pippin, 98. 
Louise Bonne pear, 69. 

Madeleine pear, or Citron 

des Calmes, 67. 
]\[agnum Bonum i^lum, 13. 
Magpie moth, 50. 
Mahaleb stock, 12. 
Manuring, 3, 10, 24, 25, 43. 

109. 

Masculine apricot, 109. 
Marie Louise pear, 69. 
Material for protection, 33. 
May Duke cherry, 140. 
Mealy bug, 47. 
Medlars, 167. 
Mellowing pears, 64. 
Melon bed, 181. 

— culture, 182, 183. 

— seed, 182. 
varieties, 183. 

Melons, 181. 
— , heat for, 181. 
Merry cherry, 143. 



187 



Mildew, 44. 

Miller's list of pears, 80. 
Monstreuse de Jodoigne 

cherry, 141. 
Moor Park apricot, 109, 110. 
Morello cherry, 144. 
Mulberry, 165. 
Murrey nectarine, 122. 
Muscativerd pear, 66. 

Napoleon pear, 70. 
Nectarine, Downton, 122. 
— , Due du Tellier, 123. 
— , Early Newington, 124. 
— , Elruge, 123. 
— , Hardwick, 122. 
— , Hunt's Tawny, 122. 
— , Murrey, 122. 
— , New White, 124. 
— , Old Newington, 125. 
— , Peterborough, 125. 
— , Pitmaston, 123. 
— , Roman, 125. 
— , Violette Hative, 123. 
— , various, 125. 
Nectarines, 122. 
Netting trees, 42. 
New White Nectarine, 124, 
Niche-budding, 24. 
Noblesse peach, 119., 
Nonesuch apple, 94. 
Norfolk Beaufin apple, 99. 
Nursery, 5. 
Nuts, 168. 

— , seedling, 169. * 
— , to keep, 170. 
— , varieties, 168. 

Oidium, 44. 

Old trees, 5, 29, 42, 43, 127. 

— English codlin, 92. 

— gardens, 28. 

— Nonpareil apple, 100. 

— Newington nectarine, 
125. 

Orange scale, 48. 
Orchard, 1. 
Orleans plum, 130. 

Packing fruit, 59. 
Paradise stocks, 11, 88. 
Passe Colmar, 75. 
Peaches, 111. 
Peach border, 112. 
— , budding, 113. 
— , classes of, 116. 
— , pruning, 114. 
— , stone stocks, 113. 
— , training, 114. 
— , Acton Scot, 117. 
— , Barrington, 118. 
— , Bellegarde, 118. 
— , Chancellor, 119. 



Peach, Early Anne, 116. 
— , Early Admirable, 117. 
— , Early York, 116. 
— , Grosse Mignonne, 117. 
— , Late Admirable, 117. 
— , Noblesse, 119. 
— , Red Nutmeg, 121. 
— , Royal George, 118. 
— , Salway, 121. 
— , Smith's Newington, 119. 
— , various, 121. 
— , Walberton, 121. 
Pear Blister moth, 51. 
Pear-Quince, 83. 
Pear, Beurre Clairgeau, 74. 
— , Beurre d'Amaulis, 67. 
— , Beurre d'Aremberg, 75. 
— , Bem^e de Capiaumont 
69. 

— , Beuerre Die!, 76. 

— , Beurre Ranee, 78. 

— , Bishop's Thumb, 68. 

— , Brown Beurre, 68. 

— , Calebasse, 68. 

— , Cassolette, Lechefrion, 

or Muscatverd, 66. 
— , Citron de Calmes, 67, 
— , Crassane, 73. 
— , Chaumontelle, 76. 
— , Doyenne Blanc, 71. 
— , Duchessed'Angouleme, 

70. 

— , Easter Beurre, 77. 
— , Graciali, 67. 
— , Glout Morceau, 76. 
— , Green Chisel, 66. 
— , Jargonelle, 65. 
— , Josephine de Malines, 
78. 

— , Louise Bonne, 69. 
— , Madeleine, 67. 
— , Marie Louise, 69. 
— , Napoleon, 70. 
— , Passe Colmar, 75. 
— , Seckle, 69. 
— , Summer Bergamot, 66. 
— , Swan's Egg, 67. 
— , variegated Crassane, 74, 
— , William's Bon Chretien ; 
66. 

— , Windsor, 66. 
— , Winter IS elis, 74 
— , Zephirine Gregoire, 73. 
Pears, 27, 60 to 86. 
— , gathering, 64, 65, 71, 72. 
— , grafting, 60. 
— on pear stocks, 35. 
— , propagation of, 60, 61. 
— , seedling, 61. 
— , spurs, 63. 
— , thinning, 63. 
Peterborough nectarine,. 
125. 



Pine-apple scale, 48. 
Pitmaston Orange Necta- 
rine, 123. 
Planting, 8. 
Plum, Acari, 49. 
Plum pruning, 127. 
— , of good sorts, 135. 
— , training, 126. 

— stocks, 126. 
Plums, 126. 
— , apricot, 131. 
— , Blue Perdrigon, 129, 
— , Brignole Prune, 132. 
— , Cherry, 120. 
— , Coe's Golden Drop, 133. 
— , Late Red, 134. 
— , Damson, 132. 
— , Downton Imperatrice, 

134. 

— , Early Favourite, 128. 
— , Early Prolific, 128. 
— , Early Orleans, 130. 
— , German Prune, 132. 
— , Greengage, 128. 
— , Jaune Hative, 128, 
— , Jefferson, 132. 
— , Kirke's, 130. 
— , Magnum Bonum, 135. 
— , Orleans, 130. 
— , Precoce de Tours, 127. 
— , Saint Catherine, 134. 
— , Violet Diaper, 132. 
— , Violet Hative, 128. 
— , Washington, 131, 
— , Winesour, 133. 
Portugal quince, 83. 
Protection, 37 to 42, 109. 
Protecting dwarf trees, 39, 
42. 

Priming, 26 to 29, 34. 

— peaches, 114. 
Psylla, 50. 
Purchasing trees, 6. 
Pyramidal training, 32. 
Pyramids, apple, 88. 

— of apples on crabs, and 
pears on pear stocks, 89. 

Quenouille training, 32. 
Quinces, 82, 83. 
Quince stocks, 12, 82. 

Raspberries, 156. 
— , cultivation of, 158, 159. 
— , planting of, 157. 
— , price of canes, 160. 
— , seedling, 157. 
— , varieties of, 159, 160. 
Receipt of baking pears 

and quinces, 85. 
Red currants, 154, 155. 

— nutmeg, peach, 121. 

— Quarenden apple, 91. 



188 



INDEX. 



Red spider, 49. 

Eeine Hortense clieiTy,141. 

Reiiiette Aiiana, 97. 

— de Canada, 98. 
Ribston Pippin, 101. 
Riglit to remove trees, 2. 
Rivers's list of apples for 

dwarf culture, 103. 
Rivers's nut trees, ICS. 
Roman nectarine, 125. 
Root grafting, 20. 

— pruning, 35. 
Royal Apricot, 110. 

— Duke cherry, 141. 

— George peach, 118. 

Saddle grafting, 19. 

St. Catherine's plum, 134. 

Salway peach, 121. 

Sawing, 28. 

Saw fly, 50. 

Scaring birds, 41. 

Scarlet Acari, 49. 

— Crofton, 94. 

— Pearmain, 96. 
Seedlings, 13, 
Seedling pear, 61. 
Seckle pear, 09. 
Seed, melon, 182. 
Shoulder gTafting, 20. 
Side grafting, 20. 
Situation for an orchard, 2. 
Slugs and snails, 52. 
Small Black cherry, 143. 
Smith's Newington peach, 

119. 

Soil for apricots, 107. 
■ — , orchard, 3. 
— , peaches. 111. 
Splice grafting, 18. 
Spring Grove codlin, 92, 
Spurs, 27, 62, 63. 
Stations, 9, 

Standard trees, 31, 62. 
Stag beetle, 45. 



Stocks, 10 to 12, 16, 87, 126. 
Storing almonds, 105. 

— apples, 58. 

— fruit, 56. 

— pears, 58. 

— pears in a greenhouse, 

58. 

— quinces and medlars, 58. 

— nuts, 59, 170. 

— medlars, 168. • 
Strawberries, 160. 
Strawberry bank, 162. 

— propagation, 161. 

— seedling, 161. 

— soil for, 160. 

— varieties, 163-165. 
Strikmg without severance, 

15. 

Sulphur, 44. 

Summer Bergamot pear, 66. 

— Golden Pippin, 91. 

— Pearmain, 96. 

— pruning, 26, 108,114, 127. 
Swan's egg pears, 67. 

Table treUises, 31, 35. 
Tartarian black cherry, 139. 
Temperature for fruit- 
room, 56. 
Thinning fruit, 63. 

— apples, 89. 

— apricots, 108. 

— peaches, 115. 
Thrips, 48. 
Tiffany, 40. 

Time for planting, 8. 
Tinea, 51. 

Toads and frogs, 54. 
Tools, 55. 
Tortrix, 54. 
Trainmg, 30. 

— apple trees, 89. 

— cherries, 137. 
Trees dying, 45. 
Tresor baking pear, 84. 



Tying grafts, 17. 

Utility of cherries, 138. 

Variegated Crassane pear, 

Ventilation of fruit-room, 
57. 

Vertical cordon training, 35. 
Very late pears, 77. 
Vine scale, 47. 
Vines, 176. 

Violet Diaper plum, 132. 
Violette Hative nectarine. 
123. 

— l>each, 118. 

— plum, 128. 

Walberton Admirable 

peach, 121. 
Walls, 4, 5. 
Walnuts, 171. 
Washington plum, 131. 
Washes for trees, 44, 45, 49. 
Wasps, 42. 
Wedge grafting, 19. 
Weevils, 53. 
Wellington apple, 99. 
Werder's early cherry, 139. 
Whip grafting, 18. 
White Astrakan apple, 91. 

— Bullace plum, 135. 

— heart cherry, 143. 

— currants, 154. 
Williafti's Bon Chretien, 66. 
Windsor pear, 66. 
Winesour, 133. 

Winter Nelis pear, 74. 

— pears, 72. 

— rtruning, 26, 108, 114, 
127, 147. 

Wood destroyers, 45, 46. 

Zephirine Gregoire pear, 73. 



Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Milford Lane, Strand, London, W.C. 



